Industry embarks on last-ditch attempt to derail pesticides Regulation

The Crop Protection Association (CPA) and key food industry organisations are calling for Gordon Brown to insist on the inclusion of a ‘safeguard clause’ within controversial new legislation proposing a dramatic restriction of the use of pesticides in the EU.

This would mean that politicians would approve the legislation on the understanding that it would not actually be implemented if a subsequent impact assessment proved it to be unworkable, said the CPA.

Chief executive Dominic Dyer said: “It may now rest on the Prime Minister to intervene personally at the European Council level and work with other Member State leaders to agree a safeguard clause to follow the final agreement in January,”

“This would require the European Council to set up an expert working group to carry out an EU-wide scientific impact assessment. This would provide assurance that the potential impact on food production and public health would be fully assessed before the legislation takes effect.”

While the European Parliament’s environment committee had made some significant concessions at its meeting on November 5, 20-30% of the crop protection materials used in agriculture today could still be banned, with potentially devastating impacts on crop yields and food prices, claimed Dyer.

“They did agree that substances should only be blacklisted if they triggered all three criteria (persistence, bio-accumulation and long-distance environmental transfer) for an active ingredient to be termed a “persistent organic pollutant” (POP),” said Dyer. “This is better than the previous position, whereby triggering one criteria would be enough to ban the substance.

A more practical approach was also agreed over keeping on some substances where safer alternatives did not exist for a limited period - rather than immediately banning them, he accepted.

However, they also proposed the introduction of additional cut-off criteria on neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity and there was continued confusion over the definition of endocrine disruptors, he said. “These kinds of things should be defined by the European Food Safety Authority.”

The Regulation also raised wider concerns about trade barriers given the expected rise in imports of crops grown outside the EU using pesticides that were banned within the EU, he said.