A representative of the European Commission has admitted before the Dutch Parliament that there is no guarantee that the omnibus proposal on pesticides will not undermine the protection of human health and the environment - a key objective of the EU pesticide law. This directly contradicts the Commission’s claim when originally presenting the proposal that it will maintain high safety standards.
At a hearing on 26 March 2026, Klaus Berend, Director for Food Safety at the Commission's Directorate-General for Health, was asked by MP Inès Kostić what evidence existed that the reform would not constitute a step backwards for citizens and nature. His response was striking in its bluntness: "How can I prove something that isn't there?" He ultimately asked parliamentarians to simply wait a few years, and hopefully the system would prove itself. This is an admission of institutional ‘negligence’ for a reform affecting the safety of hundreds of millions of Europeans.
"The veil has been lifted. There is no impact assessment, no guarantee that this reform will not harm people and nature, just the instruction to wait, hope, and trust. That is unacceptable when we are talking about toxic pesticides in our food, our water, and our children's bodies," warned Salomé Roynel, Policy Officer at PAN Europe.
In December 2025, the Commission presented its Food and Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus. Despite being framed as a bureaucratic simplification, scientists, law experts, water suppliers and NGOs warn that it would fundamentally weaken the European rules protecting from pesticides. Most strikingly, it would make unlimited pesticide approvals the default, scrapping the regular safety reassessments that form the backbone of the current system, which the Commission acknowledged only five years ago to be largely effective in protecting human health and the environment. [1] Since 2011, this has led to the ban of 54 active substances due to identified risks to human health or the environment.
The Omnibus proposal was tabled without an impact assessment, one of the Commission’s responsibilities before proposing law amendments. An independent legal opinion has confirmed that the Commission is violating its own Better Regulation Guidelines and fundamental Treaty principles. [2] The absence of an impact assessment means no one, including the Commission, knows what the real consequences of this reform will be. Among Member States, only Denmark demanded a full impact assessment before this proposal advances any further.
PAN Europe calls for the rejection of the omnibus proposal by the European Parliament and Council, and urges for efforts to be redirected towards fully implementing the existing regulation and its high protection standards.
Link to the hearing: Vereenvoudigingspakket voedsel- en diervoederveiligheid | Debat Direct (29:00)
More on Omnibus:
- Food and Feed Safety Simplification Package – December 2025
- PAN Europe’s reaction
- Pesticide Action Network raises alarm over 49 pesticides facing unlimited approval in EU ‘omnibus’ proposal
Contact: Salomé Roynel, Policy Officer, salome [at] pan-europe.info, +32 2 318 62 55
Notes:
[1] Evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 on the placing of plant protection products
