Press releases
Ironically, exactly at the launch of the Pesticide Action Week[1] (20-30 March), the European Commission gave in to the pressure of agribusiness lobby groups. By postponing the publication of a Pesticide Reduction Regulation and the Nature Recovery Law, PAN Europe considers the Commission is making a mistake as they are part of the answer for the EU to become more independent in terms of food and feed productions.
On 3 March, in a hearing in the Environment Committee of the European Parliament on the protection of wild bees against pesticides, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and DG Sante avoided answering the most relevant questions from the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
“An agriculture without chemical pesticides is possible in 2050”, the key message of today’s 8th SUD symposium “Working with Nature”, stated by guest speaker Christian Huyghe. Also the answer to the ongoing question: Is it possible to produce food without pesticides?
Over 70 European organisations sent a joint statement to European Commission Executive Vice-President Timmermans and Health & Food Safety Commissioner Kyriakides to express their deep concern about the lack of ambition of the Commission’s draft proposal for a “Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products” Regulation to be published on 23 March. They make 10 demands to reach an ambitious Regulation.
The leaked draft Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation shows a strong lack of ambition, giving Member States numerous possibilities to derail the objectives of the Green Deal. Despite some improvements, PAN Europe's analysis is that this legislative proposal lacks the change in mindset that the EU needs to embrace the transition of agriculture towards sustainable practices.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe and the environmental organization GLOBAL 2000 - Friends of the Earth Austria reveal in their report “Taking Aim with a Blindfold on” how a group of Member States in the Council do their best to prevent the collection of data on pesticide use by farmers.
Wild bees are in decline across the EU and to date, they still remain unprotected against pesticides. While the pesticide regulation claims that no unacceptable harm on the environment is accepted, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) just published an analysis supporting more harm to Wild Bees, through exposure to toxic pesticides.
Since the EU finally opened its Courts for environmental challenges to NGOs and individuals to question any EU decision concerning environmental law, PAN Europe has just launched two legal actions: one on the illegal presence on the market of non-evaluated pesticides and the other on the reapproval of highly problematic Cypermethrin.
Today, civil society and indigenous people organizations delivered more than 187,300 petition signatures from over 107 countries to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, demanding that the FAO ends its partnership with CropLife International, an association representing the world’s largest agrochemical companies. The global petition was facilitated by Pesticide Action Network (PAN), Friends of the Earth, SumOfUs, and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
Today, the EFSA is holding a meeting to expose its methodology on the assessment of 17 derogations provided by 11 Member States for the use of neonicotinoids on sugar beets in 2020 and 2021. Pollinis and PAN Europe will boycott the event as they consider the EFSA has consciously carried out a non-scientific piece of work, far from the ‘scientific excellence’ it promotes.
