Sixty MEPs from the Greens/EFA, S&D, EPP, Renew Europe, The Left groups and non-attached Members wrote to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday 6 December to demand that the Commission keeps the promise it made more than a year ago to ban the export of pesticides banned in the EU to third countries.
The open letter, initiated by MEPs Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) and Eric Andrieu (S&D, France), calls for a rapid ban.
“We, Members of the European Parliament, are concerned about the Commission’s slowness to act on the shameful practice of double standards for hazardous pesticides,” write the MEPs.
They learned last week that the EU continues to produce and export three bee-killing neonicotinoid insecticides, banned since 2018, on a massive scale.
The letter recalls that, according to an investigation by the NGOs Public Eye and Unearthed, the European authorities have given the green light to applications to export nearly 3,900 tonnes of neonicotinoids, mainly to biodiversity-rich countries, between 1 September and 31 December 2020.
The Commission is considering banning such exports in 2023 by revising the PCI Regulation on prior informed consent (see EUROPE 12818/20, 12810/13).
“2023 is far too late. This practice is a crime”, say the MEPs, calling on the Commission to translate the commitments made in the Farm to Fork strategy into action. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)