Press releases

A study by PAN Europe and its members reveals a bitter truth: European citizens are increasingly exposed to cocktails of PFAS pesticides through their food. This subgroup of ‘forever chemicals’ are deliberately sprayed on food crops, making fresh fruit and vegetables a direct and systematic route of exposure for consumers. The findings raise serious environmental and human health concerns. In response, PAN Europe urgently calls for a ban on all PFAS pesticides.

Key insights of the study include: 

The announcement of President Ursula von der Leyen to withdraw the Pesticide Reduction Law SUR represents the end of an appalling opposition, led by the agro-chemical industry, against a more healthy, future-proof agriculture for the EU.

A consortium of six NGOs - PAN Europe, ClientEarth (EU), Générations Futures (France), GLOBAL 2000 (Austria), PAN Germany, and PAN Netherlands - has officially launched a legal challenge against the European Commission’s recent decision to re-approve glyphosate. After conducting a detailed examination of the glyphosate re-approval process and identifying several critical shortcomings, the NGOs submitted a Request for Internal review to the Commission, marking the first step in this legal battle.

Thiacloprid was banned in 2020 because of its toxicity to the unborn, and concerns about the contamination of groundwater with carcinogenic metabolites. Thiacloprid is also highly toxic to bees and other pollinators. While EU law foresees that citizens and the environment should not be exposed to substances that are classified as 'Toxic to reproduction category 1B', the Commission attempted to give derogations for imported food, raising up to 1000 fold the exposure of citizens.

Brussels, 20. December 2023. - PAN Europe has initiated 2 new legal actions before the General Court of the EU. The goal is to fix the misimplementation of the EU pesticide legislation. We challenge the new regulation on co-formulants, which is an empty legislation without an obligation for pesticide companies to provide the toxicity data. The second case concerns the re-approval of abamectin. The use of this highly toxic insecticide is restricted to greenhouses, pretending that they are closed systems.

Sampling of rain and surface waters around greenhouses in Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Germany shows contamination by an alarmingly high number of pesticides. This includes substances commonly used in greenhouses and even those outlawed years ago. The report, “It rains pesticides from greenhouses!” is published today by the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe.

The EU Commission shows its close ties to the industry in a 3-day event on pesticide regulations with the industry as the only invited stakeholder. The meeting is held from 5-7 December in Braunschweig, Germany, called ‘Zonal Authorisation Procedure Improvements and Developments’ (ZAPID). (1) It offers the pesticide industry a unique opportunity to lobby policymakers from the Commission and EU Member States' public servants and meet at diners, coffee breaks and even at a Christmas market.

EU Parliament Rejects Pesticides Reduction

Today the European Parliament voted down the Commission’s proposal for an ambitious pesticides reduction in Europe. The proposal was urgent and essential to ensure a minimum of protection of EU citizens and ecosystems from the toxicity of pesticides. The lack of support represents a severe attack on the Green Deal and the public interest. This is a sad day for EU democracy, ahead of European elections.

While the European Commission is poised to formally re-approve the controversial herbicide in the coming days, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe and 4 member organisations are set to challenge the re-approval of glyphosate in EU Court. These organisations are experts in pesticide evaluation and regulation and have significant experience in EU and national Courts.

PAN Europe applauds that some countries share public and scientific concerns

The European Commission's proposal to reapprove the glyphosate licence for 10 years faced another deadlock today. It failed to reach a qualified majority from Member States' representatives in the Appeal Committee. The EU Member States did not agree for the second time in about a month.