Led by Poland, ten EU Member States will request at the Agriculture Council on Monday 26 September that the European Commission provide an additional impact assessment on the proposed regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides.
In a document, these countries (Poland, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Malta) list the flaws in the impact assessment accompanying the Commission’s proposal, published on 22 June (see EUROPE 13027/3). According to these countries, the analysis in question is insufficient, as it does not quantify the impact of pesticide reduction on European food production, on increased import dependency or on weakening the EU’s resilience to crises. Above all, they are concerned that the war in Ukraine has not been taken into account.
The main concern is that the impact assessment on which the proposed regulation is based does not take into account the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security and the resulting threats to the EU, according to these countries.
The European Commission’s explanation that the impact assessment was carried out before the outbreak of war cannot be taken seriously in this context.
They also regret that the socio-economic consequences of the ban on the use of pesticides in sensitive areas have not been measured.
“We emphasise that our priority should be to ensure the food security of European Union citizens and to preserve food sovereignty”, the document reads.
The national experts, who meet in a working group every fortnight, are continuing to examine the text. Once the Council working group has made sense of the whole proposal, the matter will be taken up by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper). The Czech Presidency of the EU Council will present a progress report on this very sensitive and technical matter before the end of December.
Link to the note from these countries: https://aeur.eu/f/38t (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)