‘Return to Sender’ is a new campaign launched today by the European coalition ‘End Toxic Pesticide Trade Coalition’ (1) to hold the European Commission to account for letting the exports of banned, toxic pesticides from the EU to the global South explode. This indefensible practice is impacting people’s health all over the world and violating human rights.
The coalition specifically addresses Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who promised in 2020 to stop this scandalous double standard with a legislative proposal.
A new report by Public Eye and Unearthed (2) revealed this week that 5 years later, the EU exports even more banned pesticides than in 2020: more than 120.000 tonnes in 2024. So instead of keeping its promise, the EU doubled these toxic exports.
As a response, the coalition will symbolically send one of the top 5 most exported banned pesticides to EC President Von der Leyen in the coming weeks. The ‘End Toxic Pesticide Trade Coalition’ has also re-sent an open letter to EC President Ursula von der Leyen (3), with a plea to keep her 2020 promise. So far, von der Leyen has not responded, and the Commission is dragging its feet to put an end to the EU production, export and residue imports of dozens of banned pesticides.
Following an action at the end of June in Brussels, a broad group of NGOs and trade unions launched a Joint Statement co-signed by 600+ organisations worldwide (4).
At the end of May, the Bishops from both Europe and Africa jointly advocated in Brussels “for an immediate ban on the export to and use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides in Africa” (5). They point out the injustice that chemicals, which are banned in Europe, are still produced there and sold to African farmers.
Also, UN rapporteurs - Marcos A. Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights and Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights – recently called for “European institutions to show leadership at the regional level and act to ban the export of banned pesticides.”
Watch the ‘Return to Sender’ video:
For more information:
- Laurent Gaberell, Public Eye, laurent.gaberell [at] publiceye.ch, +41 (0)78 204 50 60
- Hans van Scharen, Corporate Europe Observatory, hans [at] corporateeurope.org, +32 484 729776
- Angeliki Lysimachou, Pesticide Action Network Europe, angeliki [at] pan-europe.info, +32 2 318 62 55
Notes:
(1) The End Toxic Pesticide Trade Coalition (in alphabetical order): ActionAid France, Broederlijk Delen, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Dreikönig- saktion der Katholischen Jungschar (DKA Austria), Ekō, European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (FNH), Foodwatch, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace EU, Humundi, Le CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe), Pestizid Aktions-Netzwerk e.V. (PAN Germany), Public Eye, Slow Food, Veblen Institute for Economic Reforms.
(2) Report by Public Eye here and Unearthed here.
(3) Open letter to EC-president Ursula von der Leyen here.
(4) Find the Joint Statement in EN, FR, SP, Ger, PT, NL, IT and Danish here.
(5) More about the Statement from EU and African Bishops (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, SECAM, and Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, Comece) here.
