Most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees, according to a new risk assessment published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on Wednesday 28 February.
This scientific opinion updates EFSA’s conclusions of 2013 which led the European Commission to impose restrictions, still in force today, on the use of three neonicotinoids – thiamethoxam (produced by Syngenta), clothianidin and imidacloprid (both by Bayer) – because of the threat they pose to bees.
The new assessment of the risks associated with these neonicotinoids goes further than that of 2013, covering wild bees – bumblebees and solitary bees – as well as honeybees. It is based on all the scientific evidence published since the previous evaluations, with EFSA reviewing over 700 scientific studies.
Its conclusions are a god send for all those who expect the EU member states to support the Commission proposal of March 2017 aiming to introduce a virtually total ban on the three neonicotinoids, a proposal that has merely been discussed in the standing committee on plants, animals, food and feed (PAFF committee) in December of last year (see EUROPE 11925).
Call from Greens and Greenpeace to the member states. “There is no longer any good reason to delay the vote of the committee of member state experts. The next meeting will take place on 22 March and we are looking to the member states to confirm the ban on these three pesticides”, stated French MEP Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA).
The NGO Greenpeace takes the same line. “The evidence is overwhelming that bees, and the crops and plants they pollinate, are at dire risk from neonicotinoid pesticides. National governments must stop dithering and back the proposed EU neonicotinoid ban as the first step to prevent the catastrophic collapse of bee populations”, said Greenpeace EU food policy adviser Franziska Achterber in a press release. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)