The European Commission confirmed on Monday 26 June that it is close to completing the inter-service consultation on the proposal for a virtually complete ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides that can kill bees.
“The intention is to propose new restrictions on these products complementing those taken in 2013”, said spokesperson Anca Paduaru. The products at issue are Thiamethoxam (produced by Syngenta) and Clothianidin and Imidacloprid (both by Bayer).
The announcement was made in response to a question from the European press on the possible shift in France’s policy towards neonicotinoids – a move that was later denied.
On the same day, new French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert, speaking on RMC-BFM TV, had announced that he wanted to backtrack on the total ban (unless a derogation is granted) on the bee-killing pesticides, which is due to be applied from September 2018. The reason given by the minister is that the ban “does not comply with European law”, which does not go as far as the French legislation (see EUROPE 11757 and 11753).
When asked, the spokesperson declined to comment on this argument, suggesting it would be “preferable to wait for the discussion among the member states” on the proposal that is the subject of the inter-service consultation.
French MEP Éric Andrieu (S&D) is adamant that Travert’s argument does not hold water. “The agriculture minister is mendaciously hiding behind Europe in announcing his decision which is nothing less than provocation for environmentalists”, he immediately stated in a press release.
In Andrieu’s view, Travert’s statement is all the more “surprising” as the Parliament’s environment committee had, as recently as Thursday 22 June, voted overwhelmingly and with support from the European Right for the extension and tightening of the scope of the ban on the neonicotinoids (see EUROPE 11814).
The MEP stated that “often the European standard is minimum and member states can do more in terms of consumer and worker protection”. Internal market rules have, nonetheless, to be observed and reasons given to justify safeguard clauses must be robust enough to withstand possible attack in the WTO.
French Prime Minister’s office denies that France will do a U-turn. The announcement by the agriculture minister was denied by the prime minister’s office. “The government has decided not to revisit the provisions of the 2016 law. That was decided at a meeting held in Matignon, the prime minister’s residence, on 21 June. As the European Commission has made some observations on the French regulations to ensure that the French law complies with European law, we are currently working with the European authorities” Matignon said in a press release in the middle of the day. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)