Exporting pesticides banned in the EU to developing countries is neither in line with the EU’s values nor in its interest, as these products end up on the plates of European consumers, stressed MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, on Tuesday 23 March, in an exchange of views with the Commission.
Requested by the Greens/EFA, this exchange was aimed at asking the European Commission to act to halt these exports (see EUROPE 12621/17, 12558/14). Many MEPs were left wanting.
On behalf of the Commission, Juergen Helbig recalled that exports take place in accordance with the rules under the Rotterdam Convention with the prior informed consent of the recipient countries.
The European Regulation transposing it (EU 649/2012, the so-called ‘PIC Regulation’) covers a larger number of substances banned or severely restricted in the EU (currently 226) and the chemicals listed in Annex III of the Convention (currently 52). It also provides for an explicit consent procedure (currently 120 chemicals).
“Our rules go far beyond the Convention. They do not allow exports, if the conditions of the PIC Regulation are not met”, he said.
The Health Service representative pointed out that the EU Regulation on pesticide residues in food sets maximum limits that are based on the use of a given pesticide outside the EU and may also concern active substances that are no longer approved in the EU.
If an applicant wants to have an import tolerance for a substance that is no longer approved in the EU, they must provide all the data that shows that the products are safe. “And if consumer safety is not guaranteed, this tolerance is not allowed”, he said.
But in the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, the Commission has announced that in future it will take environmental aspects into account when deciding on applications for import tolerance for substances that are no longer approved in the EU, even though these substances meet WTO standards.
The Commission should focus on environmental problems of global concern that cannot be solved by European action alone, such as the decline of pollinators or the contamination of the environment by persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals.
The institution intends to start with neonicotinoids to reduce maximum residue limits to the limit of detection and no longer allow import tolerance for such products.
French MEPs Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA) and Eric Andrieu (S&D) asked whether the Commission would review the ‘PIC’, ‘Biocides’, ‘Pesticides’ and ‘REACH’ regulations. The institution replied that environmental considerations were possible under the current PIC Regulation.
A proposal to halt exports of toxic chemicals banned in the EU, in particular pesticides, will be presented “in the coming years”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)