Leaked draft of new EU regulation about reduction in pesticide use
According to a leaked draft of the new regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides, the final version of which is expected in March, the objective of 50% reduction of pesticides in the European Union set for 2030 with the Farm to fork Strategy remains binding, but Member States will be free to set their own national goals.
If the proposal will be confirmed, it would be the first conversion into legislation of one of the objectives indicated in 2020 by the Farm to Fork Strategy to make EU food systems more sustainable by 2030.
The pesticides regulation will replace the 2009 Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD), which already aimed to reduce the risks and impact of the use of pesticides on human health and the environment. However, according to the European Commission's analysis, the 2009 Directive has never been fully implemented in most Member States (MS), due to ineffective national action plans and poor monitoring systems.
These are some key points that seem to emerge from the draft:
- the limits will be legally binding at EU level, but MS can deviate from the 50% level within certain parameters
- the MS, in any case, cannot set national targets below 25%, unless they can demonstrate that the chosen level is justified by specific newly-emerged factors (e.g. a change in the pest profile)
- the MS are also free to set goals that go beyond those set by the regulation.
It remains to be seen whether a flexible system, such as the one emerging from the draft, will be able to break the dependence of European agriculture on pesticides.
Source:
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