The authorisation of mancozeb, a pesticide active substance known to be highly toxic, will not be renewed in the EU. The European Commission decided on Monday 14 December by formally adopting an Implementing Regulation to this effect.
Under this Regulation, EU Member States are now required to withdraw authorisations for all plant protection products containing mancozeb by June 2021.
At the end of October, their experts had voted in favour of the Commission’s proposal for a ban in the EU’s Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) (see EUROPE 12589/23).
This proposal was based on an opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which confirmed concerns about the reproductive and environmental toxicity and endocrine disrupting properties of mancozeb for humans and animals.
“Member States must now urgently withdraw all authorisations for plant protection products containing mancozeb”, said Commissioner for Food Safety Stella Kyriakides in a statement.
“Reducing the dependency on chemical pesticides is a key pillar of the Farm to Fork strategy we presented last spring”, she says. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)