On 4 July, member states are expected to give their opinion on new criteria for defining pesticides that act as “endocrine disruptors”. France had previously called for a deadline to be introduced, during the most recent meeting, given the country’s electoral context but now says that it would be able to support the draft regulation. Ahead of the meeting, no country was able, however, to confirm its position to EUROPE.
The Commission is generally expected to call for a vote if it has the support of a qualified majority of member states. This was not the case during the eight meetings of the standing committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF).
If the vote takes place on 4 July, it will exclusively focus on current criteria, or the draft regulation discussed in April by national experts and rules out derogations linked to negligible risk. The three criteria retained for defining an endocrine disruptor would therefore include unwanted side-effects, the endocrine mode of action and correlation with between the two previous criteria (see EUROPE 11573). The text would also seek to authorise active substances that deliberately disrupt the endocrine systems of other organisms other than vertebrates.
According to certain rumours, France is prepared to support the draft regulation put forward by the Commission. For the remainder, the other member states are expected to maintain the same positions as in the past (at the end of 2016), with Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Finland expressing their clear support for the criteria as they stood, while Denmark, Spain, Sweden and France under François Hollande are opposed. On 4 July, it is possible that Eastern European countries and the United Kingdom will abstain during the vote in an effort to express their dissatisfaction with the fact that no derogations have been included.
In an effort to reassure them, the Commission made a commitment during the most recent meeting, to present a different proposal on derogations “later on” but it did not want to confirm this. It is also expected to present draft guidelines for framing criteria implementation, once they enter into force "in the autumn". In case of failure on 4 July, the matter should be referred to the ministerial level, the Commission told us. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)