At the request of several groups - in particular the Greens/EFA - MEPs on the European Parliament's Environment Committee held an exchange of views on Wednesday 25 September on the draft regulation amending the uniform principles for decision-making on acute risks of pesticides to bees.
The Greens/EFA and S&D groups wanted the Commission to explain why it agreed to force EFSA to review its very comprehensive 2013 guidance document and finally propose a regulation representing only a very small part of these guidelines and excluding the assessment of chronic effects at this stage (see EUROPE 12299/2, EUROPE 12292/14).
For all the Commission explaining that it deplored the Member States' refusal to apply all these guidelines and that this regulation was better than nothing, the MEPs, on the whole, were not convinced and it is likely that they will launch an objection procedure.
"The deadline for objections is 27 September. If this procedure continues, the vote would take place in plenary session at the end of October", said committee chair Pascal Canfin.
"Questions remain. We know that EFSA's guidelines have been used to ban neonicotinoids. Sixteen Member States protested about chronicity. You postpone chronicity and create double standards. The issue has been on the agenda since 2009", Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) told the Commission representative. He criticised the institution for not bringing the issue to the political level, which would have forced Member States to make their positions public. Ms Björk (S&D Sweden) said that "multinationals have won".
EFSA's guidelines had been drawn up at the request of the Commission, which is "committed to the protection of pollinators and bees", the Commission's representative said. "Unfortunately, after 5 years of debate, only some Member States have agreed to its full implementation. Some proposed a partial application with a parallel revision, others the full revision before any implementation".
It was therefore in order to break the deadlock that last year the Commission proposed to initially implement only part of the guidance on acute risks to honeybees and to ask EFSA to review the chronic risks and risks to solitary bees and bumblebees, he explained.
This revision will take into account any new scientific discoveries made since 2013 - and there are many of them - he said.
The first stakeholder meeting will take place at the end of September / beginning of October. Once adopted, the modification of the criteria will allow the implementation of the relevant parts of the EFSA guidance document, while the assessment for chronic risks will continue. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)