The European Commission called, on Wednesday 5 April, on the EU’s co-legislators - the European Parliament and the EU Council - to swiftly adopt all the European Green Deal legislation it has proposed for biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.
In a communication published the same day, it formally responded to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) ‘Save Bees and Farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment’, launched in November 2019, the same year the so-called ‘Green Deal’ was adopted. This is currently being partly challenged by MEPs on the right of the Parliament and some Member States, who fear for the food security and competitiveness of European agriculture at a time of energy and economic crisis and record inflation (see EUROPE 13143/20).
The Commission’s communication on this ECI, which received 1.1 million signatures, is a tribute to the ambition of the Green Deal, which it hopes will be maintained.
For the record, the ECI called on the Commission to present legislative initiatives to: 1) phase out synthetic pesticides in EU agriculture by 2030, starting with the most hazardous, to become free of synthetic pesticides by 2035; 2) restore natural ecosystems in agricultural areas so that agriculture becomes a vector of biodiversity recovery; 3) support farmers in transition, i.e. reform agriculture by prioritising small-scale, diversified and sustainable farming, supporting a rapid increase in agroecological and organic practices and enabling independent farmer-based training and research into pesticide- and GMO-free farming (see EUROPE 12376/19).
A major issue. The Commission welcomes this ECI - the seventh to have collected 1 million signatures, stressing that this is a major issue. It states that the interlinked crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss are growing challenges for Europe’s agriculture and food security.
In the EU, one in three species of bees, butterflies and hoverflies are in decline, while 80% of cultivated plant species and wild flowers depend on animal pollination and half of the EU’s agricultural land is already at risk of a pollination deficit. The threat to the existence of pollinators is a threat to food security and life on the planet, the institution said.
The Commission also sees this ECI as a clear sign of the broad public support for action in favour of pollinators, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.
A catalogue of proposed measures. Among the proposals presented, on which it calls on the Parliament and the EU Council to rapidly conclude ambitious agreements, the Commission mentions in particular:
- the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, both of which call for a halving of the use of chemical pesticides and the risks of the most dangerous ones.
- the proposed Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides in June 2022 to address the insufficient effectiveness of the Pesticides Directive by imposing binding targets (see EUROPE 13154/9, 12977/16).
- the proposed regulation imposing binding nature restoration targets (see EUROPE 12977/17), welcomed by Member State Environment ministers (see EUROPE 13088/1) but of concern to their Agriculture colleagues (see EUROPE 13145/12).
- the proposal in January 2023 for a ‘New Deal for Pollinators’ - consisting of an EU Communication and Action Plan to reverse the decline of wild pollinators by 2030 (see EUROPE 13106/10).
The effective implementation of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023-2027 will complete the package.
NGOs call on the European Parliament and EU Council to be more ambitious. The NGOs behind the ECI, such as PAN Europe, Global 2000 and Slow Food, responded by stressing “the urgency and importance of pesticide reduction to protect people’s health, biodiversity and sustainable food production”.
In a joint statement, they urge for more ambition by the European Parliament and Member States and “encourage involvement of concerned citizens and scientists in the process till the goals are achieved” and promise that they will closely monitor the evolution of the political situation.
To see the Commission’s communication: https://aeur.eu/f/67m (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)