On Monday 23 October, the EPP group in the European Parliament announced that it would be defending a target of a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2035, compared to 2030 in the compromise amendments agreed between the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups, when the European Parliament’s Environment Committee votes the following day.
Ahead of the vote in the European Parliament’s Environment Committee on Tuesday 24 October, Alexander Bernhuber (EPP, Austrian) stressed to the press his group’s desire to negotiate an acceptable compromise (see EUROPE 13276/12). Now is not the time to threaten to reject the entire text proposed by the European Commission on the sustainable use of pesticides. “There will not be a majority in the European Parliament committee in favour of the amendments to reject” the text, he admitted. “We want to work on finding a compromise”, he said. The Commission’s method of calculation is not the best, but nothing better is possible, stressed the MEP.
The EPP supports a European target of a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2035. In addition, Member States should be given flexibility, because “we can’t know what diseases there will be in the Netherlands or Italy in 2 years’ time”, argued Alexander Bernhuber, who also called for account to be taken of Member States’ “different starting points” when it comes to pesticide use. “We’ll see the outcome of the votes tomorrow”, he said, while expressing doubts about the possibility of reaching a European Parliament/EU Council agreement on pesticides before the end of the European Parliament’s current term of office. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)