Europe’s regions and cities are calling for more ambition in reducing pesticide use “as this enables farmers to better cope with the economic, energy and climate crisis”, according to an opinion delivered on 15 March by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and drafted by Heinz-Joachim Höfer (PES, German).
Local and regional leaders are calling on EU Member States to set up pest management funds, which would be financed by risk-based pesticide taxation, retailer contributions or fines.
The CoR wants to ban pesticides near areas where vulnerable people, such as pregnant women or children, are present.
According to the opinion of the CoR (https://aeur.eu/f/5vk ), it should: - focus on the most dangerous pesticides rather than on the quantities applied; - revise the evaluation procedure and indicators for pesticides used by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) to take into account ‘cocktail effects’ and ‘resistance’; - prohibit the import of products treated with unauthorised pesticides and the export of unauthorised pesticides; - extend buffer zones to 50 metres (instead of 3 m in the initial Commission proposal) in areas frequented mainly by vulnerable populations and where the most dangerous plant protection products are used (see EUROPE 13143/10). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)