On Wednesday 22 June, the European Commission is expected to adopt a proposal for a regulation making the target of a 50% reduction in pesticide use and risks by 2030 legally binding at EU level. EU Member States would be allowed to set their own reduction target in their national legislation.
According to a draft text seen by EUROPE, this 50% reduction target is in line with the EU-wide carbon neutrality objective for 2050 and the interim CO2 reduction target of 55% by 2030.
According to the Commission, the proposal will ensure that pesticide users are better informed about effective alternatives to chemical pesticides, in order to reduce their use and related costs, while continuing to produce competitive food on the market.
With more detailed data on pesticide use and integrated pest management, Member State authorities will be able to ensure that national measures are of maximum benefit to farmers, the public, other stakeholders and the environment.
Increased production costs. The Commission admits that the proposal will result in higher production costs due to, among other things, stricter and more detailed reporting requirements and expected lower yields due to less pesticide use.
“EU consumers could see food prices rise, which could lead to an increase in imports from non-EU countries with less stringent regulations on pesticide use”, the Commission also acknowledges.
No uniform mandatory targets per country. Chapter 2 of the text sets out the EU’s objective to reduce pesticide use and risks by 50% (compared to the average of 2015, 2016 and 2017), in line with the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, to which the Member States must (collectively) contribute.
According to the provisions, Member States will have to adopt binding targets under their national legislation, which may deviate from the EU target (-50%), within the limits of a binding formula. This formula allows Member States to take account of historical progress in setting national targets.
The proposal therefore avoids setting uniform mandatory targets for Member States.
The ‘ proportionality’ of the target-setting process has been ensured by providing a legislative formula that allows for differences in progress between Member States, the Commission explains.
National Action Plans. Each Member State will have to develop and publish on a website a national action plan containing various information, including national reduction targets for 2030.
According to the Commission, the primary objective of the proposal is: - to reduce the use and risks of chemical pesticides, in particular those containing more hazardous active substances; - to increase the implementation of integrated pest management; - to increase the use of less hazardous and non-chemical alternatives.
The second objective is to improve the availability of monitoring data, especially on pesticide-related risks (to health and the environment). Another objective is to promote the adoption of new technologies, such as precision agriculture (including geospatial location techniques), in order to reduce the overall use and risks of pesticides.
The use and risks of chemical pesticides have decreased by 14% in the EU compared to the baseline period 2015-2017 and by 1% compared to 2020, according to the latest figures presented on 15 June by the Commission.
For the molecules considered most dangerous, the decrease compared to 2015-2017 is 26%, and 9% compared to 2020.
Link to the project: https://aeur.eu/f/27b (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)