To improve farmers’ access to alternatives to chemical pesticides, the EU is adopting new rules to increase the availability of organic pesticides that are more environmentally friendly and pose less of a risk to public health.
Member States have approved a proposal for a regulation to amend existing legislation to speed up the market authorisation of these organic pesticides, the institution announced on Thursday 10 February (see EUROPE 12823/14).
This new regulation amends Regulation (EU) No. 546/2011, providing specific uniform principles for the market evaluation and authorisation of plant protection products. It will adapt these uniform principles to take into account the particularities of plant protection products containing micro-organisms, which differ from synthetic chemicals.
It will work towards the target of halving the use and risks of chemical pesticides, set by the EU’s Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy 2030.
The new rules will place the biological and ecological properties of each micro-organism at the centre of the scientific risk assessment, which must demonstrate safety before micro-organisms can be approved as active substances in plant protection products.
They should apply by November 2022.
In a statement, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides welcomed the move as “good news for European farmers”, as it will facilitate their transition away from the use of chemical pesticides. And she added: “Organic products can protect their crops with less risk to human health or the environment”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)