The European Parliament, voting in Strasbourg on Wednesday 14 June, ultimately supported the ban on the use of pesticides in ecological focus areas (EFAs). The decision was not to object to the delegated act containing measures to simplify the arrangements on the greening of aid (see EUROPE 11798 and 11804).
Parliament, then, did not take the same view as its agriculture committee which, in adopting the report by Czesław Adam Siekierski (EPP, Poland), recommended that objection be raised to the delegated act which bans the use of pesticides on legume crops in EFAs.
With 363 MEPs voting to object (267 against objection and 43 abstentions), the numbers required – 376 – for the objection to be carried were ultimately not achieved. The delegated act will now come into force since the Council has already approved it.
The French Socialist delegation says that preserving biodiversity is a matter of urgency. “This involves using fewer pesticides and banning them in ecological focus areas, which represent less than 8% of arable land in Europe.” The S&D Group rejects the arguments of the European Right which says that a ban of this sort will harm the production of protein and legume crops. The question of the EU’s self-sufficiency in vegetable proteins could, say the Social Democrats, be resolved by a real EU strategy on plant self-sufficiency.
NGOs Greenpeace and WWF have both welcomed the outcome of the vote. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)