The Commission has decided on its own authority to ban diquat, the highly toxic active ingredient from Syngenta that is used in pesticides, in the absence of opinion from member states, it was reported on Friday 12 October. This ban also applies to thiram and pymetrozine, while malathion, which has been identified as a risk to birds, can only be used in greenhouses, the institution said.
In the appeals committee, last July, the member states failed to approve or reject the ban proposal because of a lack of a sufficient majority (see EUROPE 12062). The Commission has therefore adopted non-renewal decisions requiring member states to withdraw authorisations for crop protection products containing diquat, thiram and pymetrozine.
The chair of the European Parliament's special PEST committee, Eric Andrieu (S&D), immediately welcomed, on Friday, "the Commission's decision to take responsibility and not to renew the authorisation of diquat in Europe, a highly toxic substance". According to him, it is "a first step towards a strict application of the precautionary principle".
The Commission followed the EFSA opinion, which concluded in November 2015 with serious concerns about the hormonal disturbances that diquat can cause in humans and animals, as well as the high levels of exposure associated with it. While the active substance's licence expired in 2012, diquat had been reauthorised until now on a temporary basis. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)