In 2009 the European Union established the Sustainable Use Directive on Pesticides (SUDP), and a movement of towns going towards getting pesticides free is growing more and more citizens are opposing to the use of pesticides in the parks and streets where its citizens work, live and play. This year, during the 10th edition of Pesticide Action Week, the region of Brussels organised an exchange between towns on how to become pesticides free. We welcome this idea and encourage others to follow, across different regions and different countries.
The Member States who are getting serious about banning pesticide use in public areas are:
- France has decided to get pesticide free as from 2016, and progress is measured here.
- Flandre (Belgium) has decided to get pesticide free as from 2015, and progress can be seen here.
- Wallonia (Belgium) has decided to get pesticide free as from 2019, and progress can be seen here.
- Brussels (Belgium) has decided to get pesticides free as from 2020.
- The Netherlands has decided to get pesticides free as from 2017, implementation still not started, but an overview is available.
- Denmark decided in 1998 to phase out pesticide use in all public areas by 2007, however, the same year a derogation for using glyphosate was introduced, and a new plan was introduced still with the objective of phasing out pesticides in public areas but without any legally binding dates for when this must be applied.
- Luxembourg has decided to get pesticide free in public spaces from 1st January 2016.
PAN Europe will follow this development closely. Such an approach is especially important if linked to other initiatives like green public procurement, serving organic food in public canteens, meat-free Day, etc., that can help to detoxing our towns towards the development of sustainable towns.
For more information on pesticide free towns see: www.pesticide-free-towns.info
