Briefings

November 2020

PAN Europe’s briefing on REFIT of PPP and MRL Regulations (EC No 1107/2009 and 396/2005)

The European Commission's REFIT evaluation of the Pesticide and MRL Regulations[1] recognises the important value of the Pesticides Regulation that aims “to ensure a high level of protection for humans, animal and the environment” and sets clear hazard-based cut-off criteria for the approval of active substances. Nevertheless, the evaluation falls short in identifying several important shortcomings of the current pesticide authorisation system – raised by civil society, scientists and policy makers- that obstruct the Regulation to fulfil its purpose.

October 2020

Contribution to the EU feedback mechanism on Statistics on Agricultural Input and Output (SAIO)

The European Commission is planning to consolidate and streamline European statistic for agricultural products and inputs (SAIO). PAN Europe welcomes this effort of harmonisation and rationalisation of statistics. Nevertheless, it highlights the importance of obtaining more detailed and more independent statistics on the use of pesticides and exposure to monitor progress towards the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategy targets. Below we will explain how but call.

June 2020

PAN Europe’s position on the ongoing public consultation on the ‘Sustainable use of pesticides – revision of the EU rules’

The consultation claims that ‘The preliminary results of the evaluation will be used to establish the baseline situation for the impact assessment, refine the problem definition and the policy options and feed into their analysis.’ In the roadmap to the Farm to Fork Strategy, it emerges that this initiative will be concluded in Q1 of 2022.

Against this backdrop, Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) and its members wonder why the European Commission is considering to make an impact assessment.

June 2020

PAN Europe’s position on the evaluation of the EU agricultural promotion policy

PAN Europe proposes that the Commission aligns the EU promotion of agricultural products with the European Green Deal, therefore focusing on the promotion of circular and sustainable models rather than on competitiveness, with a special focus on pesticide use reductions. Below we explain how.

The European Commission’s promotion programme should be suspended until sustainability criteria are fully integrated

May 2020

PAN Europe’s input for the definition of priorities in the Annual Work Programme for 2021 concerning promotion of agricultural products

PAN Europe proposes that the Commission aligns the 2021 work programme on promotion of agricultural products with the European Green Deal and therefore focuses on promotion of circular and sustainable models rather than on competitiveness. Furthermore, since tourism has been particularly hit by the impact of COVID-19, and rural agricultural areas have a lot to offer while guaranteeing social distancing, we propose to consider promoting sustainable concepts – connecting farmers and citizens - rather than products. 

May 2020

Position paper: PAN Europe's position on the EU Farm to Fork strategy

The European Green Deal published by the European Commission in December 2019 calls for a significant reduction in the risk and use of chemical pesticides as a key to kick off the ecological transition. This briefing aims at giving recommendations on how this can happen.

January 2020

Fitness Check of the EU Legislation with regard to Endocrine Disruptors- A stakeholders survey

PAN Europe took part at the EU Expert Stakeholder Survey on the Fitness Check of the EU Legislation with regard to Endocrine Disruptors. 

Read more>>

January 2020

Factsheet: PAN Europe's contribution to the EU roadmap on Safeguarding nature – EU 2030 biodiversity strategy

PAN Europe welcomes that the new European Commission has started its five years in office with a consultation on biodiversity; we hope that this means putting biodiversity first on the EU agenda to underline the argument in the European Green Deal that ‘The EU has the collective ability to transform its economy and society to put it on a more sustainable path’.

November 2019

PAN Europe's reaction to European Commission publication of Harmonised Risk Indicators (HRI) for pesticides

The European Commission misleadingly claims a 20% reduction in risks posed by pesticides in the EU. Yesterday the European Commission published - for the first time - trends in the newly established Harmonised Risk Indicators intending to measure the evolution of the risks posed by pesticides in EU Member States.

September 2019

PAN Europe position on precision farming

PAN Europe recalls that precision farming as standing alone will neither be able to fulfil the requirements of the EU Directive on Sustainable Use of Pesticides nor be able to encourage the transition towards a more ecological model of farming that the EU desperately needs. Instead, precision farming will ‘only’ be able to help farmers stop overuse of pesticides allowing farmers to spray less.

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Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the European Union, European Commission, DG Environment, LIFE programme. Sole responsibility for this publication lies with the authors and the funders are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.