The European Parliament's environment committee has opposed renewing the authorisation for bentazone for a further 15 years, due to its concerns about public and animal health and environmental protection. This pesticide is widely used in agriculture and often found in groundwater. It is also possibly an endocrine disruptor.
The objection to the European Commission draft was approved by 30 votes (21 against, with one abstention). The Commission’s draft implementing regulation proposes to authorise this active substance until 31 January 2032, despite the fact that it does not yet have the necessary scientific data confirming the safety of bentazone. At the same time, it also requires the party requesting the authorisation extension to provide data confirming the pesticide’s safety.
Practice denounced by EU ombudsman. Pavel Poc (S&D, Czech Republic), the rapporteur, emphasised before the vote that “this is a very much criticised practice because the substance could be on the market before we have all the necessary data supporting the decision. I have had quite enough of all this.” In February, the EU ombudsman criticised this practice as a case of bad Commission management and called on it to put a stop to it (see EUROPE 11496).
MEPs reproach the Commission for having failed to respect the provisions in Regulation 1107/2009 involving the marketing of phyto-pharmaceutical products and for having breached the precautionary principle included in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
MEPs consider the risk assessment insufficient and will argue that it is impossible to claim this substance does not have any harmful effects on human health, animal health, groundwater or that it does not have any unacceptable impact on the environment. The MEPs are therefore calling on the Commission to withdraw its current proposal and to submit another one as soon as it has all the required data. The European Parliament will discuss this non-binding recommendation of objection during this month’s plenary session. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)