In a ruling published on Wednesday 18 October, the Belgian Council of State annulled the derogations unduly granted by Belgium for the use of seeds treated with neonicotinoids, following several legal proceedings brought by the NGO network PAN Europe (Pesticide Action Network) and its member Nature et Progrès Belgique.
The Council of State’s ruling follows that of the Court of Justice of the EU (case C-162/21), which in January condemned Belgium for misusing emergency derogations (Article 53 of Regulation 1107/2009 ‘Pesticides’) to use bee-killing neonicotinoids banned in the EU from 2018 (see EUROPE B1310328, 13135/5).
In the wake of the Council of State’s decision, PAN Europe welcomes this result, which crowns the success of procedures brought in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before the Belgian court, which had finally referred five prejudicial questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling in 2021.
“During the procedure, the European Commission, along with France, Hungary, Greece and Finland, shamelessly supported Belgium’s view”, commented PAN Europe’s Executive Director, Martin Dermine, in a press release published on Thursday.
The NGOs point out that, since the CJEU ruling, dozens of derogations have been granted by Member States for pesticides banned by the EU (https://aeur.eu/f/95i ) and that they expect the Commission to finally present revised guidelines on derogations. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)