Brussels, 31/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 31 January, the European Commission proposed to national experts that the use of three insecticides (neonicotinoids) should be suspended for two years, as they are considered to be highly toxic for bees (see EUROPE 10774). On 16 January this year, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) took the view that the use of these three molecules - thiamethoxam (main Cruiser ingredient), clothianidin and imidacloprid (marketed by the Sygenta and Bayer groups) - were harmful for pollinating insects (see EUROPE 10765).
Health Commissioner Tonio Borg thus submitted to the EU's standing committee on the food chain and animal health a proposal aimed at banning the above three neonicotinoids in the three forms in which they are applied: seed treatment, granules and sprays. The ban would apply to the treatment of crops that attract bees, namely rape, sunflower, maize and cotton (which is not often grown in Europe). Pesticides used on crops that do not attract bees would not be targeted. Neither would crops planted in the autumn (there being less dust at that period of the year). The Commission proposes that such techniques be banned for seeds, with just one exception. For maize seeds planted in 2013, it will tolerate the use of the pesticides this year, with member states proceeding, if they so wish, to a more proactive ban.
The Commission reserves the right, to review the European legislation after a two-year suspension. Member states present at the standing committee will raise the matter with their capitals, their experts and their farmers to see whether suspension is possible. The next stage is the preparation by the Commission of a regulation. The spokesman for Tonio Borg said they trusted that the regulation might be adopted by the end of the winter, perhaps before the month of March, which would mean that the ban would be effective as of 1 July 2013. The Commission trusts measures will be approved at the EU standing committee on 25 February.
During Thursday's standing committee, some countries - such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain - were apparently reticent about the idea of suspending the use of such insecticides, calling for studies to be continued relating to the impact that their use has on the health of the bee population. It is necessary to harmonise the rules as France withdrew marketing approval for the Cruiser OSR end July 2012, which is used as a treatment for oil seed rape. It is still used for maize and, although this is disputed, it has not yet been definitively banned. Italy and Germany ban the use of the neonicotinoid pesticides only for maize, and the Netherlands for treating plants that attract bees, while Slovenia bans them for all plants.
Sandrine Belier (Greens/EFA, France) would have preferred a total ban instead of partial suspension over two years of the neonicotinoid insecticides for cotton, sunflower, maize and oil seed rape. The Greens at the EP are calling on industry to focus on the production of other phytopharmaceutical products instead of threatening the Commission with legal action. (LC/transl.jl)