MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment (ENVI) debated the protection of bees again on Monday 21 June, and welcomed the fact that the European Commission now supports the European Parliament’s request that the issue be taken to the political level at the EU Agriculture/Fisheries Council (28-29 June).
“There will be a discussion next week. For the first time, the issue will be raised to ministerial level. We are open to dialogue with the EU Council to avoid a game of ping-pong between the EU Council and the Parliament, to avoid the European Commission being stuck between the two and nothing being done for the bees”, said the Committee Chair, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France).
The revision of EFSA's 2013 guidance document on the risk assessment of pesticides to bees, which Member States refused to implement in full, has led the Commission and Member States to favour one option - the BEEHAVE model for defining the acceptable level of increase in bee mortality due to pesticides - a model that MEPs are not satisfied with (see EUROPE 12691/12).
During the debate, EFSA presented MEPs with its scientific opinion on an integrated holistic approach to environmental risk assessment of multiple stressors to honey bees, which was finalised in May after a public consultation.
The Parliament’s Committee on Environment had called for the cumulative effects of other factors (agricultural practices, genetic factors, pathogens) to be taken into account and for EFSA to work with other actors, including the EU Bees Partnership (see EUROPE 12630/13).
“EFSA has set up an independent scientific panel”, said its representative, describing the latest scientific opinion as “a discussion paper for future developments which is in line with the European Green Deal and some details which will require further elaboration”.
While the EFSA guidance document focuses on prevention, with a legislative framework underway, the scientific opinion focuses on future developments in environmental risk assessment, beyond a ‘one crop, one pesticide’ assessment.
“We propose an integrated systems-based approach to risk assessment, incorporating new advances in technology, data and knowledge”, EFSA said.
The approach is based on: - computer modelling to simulate and assess the exposure of a bee colony to one or more chemicals and the impact on bee health, taking into account stressors and long-term sublethal effects; - monitoring through a network of sentinel hives, placed in different landscapes and climatic zones within the EU, which will be equipped with digital sensors allowing a data flow to a platform for analysis and storage. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)