The NGO network PAN Europe announced on Thursday 11 May, that it has set in motion two procedures to have the European Commission review its decisions supporting the use of harmful pesticides in violation of the Pesticides Regulation (1107/2009), which aims to ensure a high level of protection for humans, animals and the environment.
The first request for internal review concerns the renewal of the authorisation for use in greenhouses of the active substance Abamectin, a highly toxic acaricide, even though EFSA has indicated that greenhouses are not closed systems, the NGO reports.
The second request concerns the recent Commission Regulation establishing a procedure for identifying unacceptable co-formulants in pesticides (see EUROPE 13061/20).
Although the Pesticides Regulation requires the same level of protection for co-formulants as for active substances, co-formulants’ toxicity is still not thoroughly assessed, as data on their toxicity is not available to public authorities.
PAN Europe criticises the Commission for asking the Member States to identify co-formulants that could harm human health or the environment without creating an obligation for the pesticide industry to provide the necessary data for the toxicity assessment.
“This new regulation is a smoke screen. The way this regulation has been drafted prevents regulatory authorities from identifying toxic co-formulants. Citizens and the environment will remain unprotected”, said Martin Dermine, Executive Director of PAN Europe, in a press release. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)