Following on from the Court of Justice ruling against it for a delay in regulating endocrine disruptors, the European Commission is once again behind schedule on assessing implementation of the directive on pesticides, the NGO Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe highlighted on Monday 28 November.
Two years on from the date set, 26 November 2014, the Commission has still not submitted to the Council of the EU and European Parliament the report it had to present on implementation by member states of the 2009 directive “establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides” (Framework Directive 2009/128/EC). The report was to be accompanied, if necessary, by legislative proposals.
This “simple report” is now two years late, regrets the NGO, that remarked: “Happy birthday! But, again, no gift!!” More seriously, PAN Europe calls on the European Commission to publish the overdue report and to name and shame member states “who are putting their citizens at risk by not fulfilling the objectives” of the directive on the sustainable use of pesticides.
PAN Europe, which has evaluated the progress achieved by the 28 member states, notes that, hitherto, only Denmark and France have set overall quantitative reduction targets and timetables.
These two countries have also introduced pesticide taxes but only Denmark has increased, reshaped and differentiated its pesticide tax to respond to actual environmental and health hazards. The Danish plan sought to “reduce the pesticide load by 40%” by 2015 compared with 2011 and this objective would seem to have been reached. The French reduction plan, meanwhile, has yet to achieve its target.
According to the NGO, the pan-European study confirms that differentiated taxes can be an effective environmental policy instrument in the long-term “reducing the reliance on pesticides significantly”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)