Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Health and Food Safety rejected, on Monday 6 December, a proposal to object to the European Commission’s plan to raise the maximum residue level for flonicamid in certain food products.
The objection was proposed by MEP Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France), who said she was surprised that the Commission would come back with such a project when the Parliament had already opposed it in March 2019, September 2020 and April 2021.
The European Parliament argued that this selective and systemic insecticide disrupted the behaviour of insects, leading them to die of hunger and thirst (see EUROPE 12708/8).
The objection was rejected by 53 votes (16 in favour and 5 abstentions).
MEPs from the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe groups voted against, saying that the maximum limit “was established on a scientific basis” and, according to Marie Arena (S&D, Belgium), that “we had to keep our credibility”.
The Left MEPs supported the objection, arguing that it is better to wait for “the re-evaluation that should have been done two years ago before setting a new MRL for a potentially dangerous pesticide”.
Responding to Ms Rivasi, the Commission representative said that it was “not true that flonicamid is classified as reprotoxic” and that it poses a risk to pollinators. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)