The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) is opposed to two draft implementing regulations from the European Commission aimed at raising the maximum residue levels (MRLs) for fipronil and tricyclazol in or on food and feed of plant and animal origin (amending Annexes II and V of Regulation 396/2005) to facilitate imports.
The objection to the plan to double the MRL for fipronil in sugar cane was adopted by 44 votes to 14, with 27 abstentions, on Wednesday 29 November. The reason given for this is that fipronil has not been authorised in the EU for most seed treatments since 2013, and the proposal aims to allow fipronil to be used for seed treatment in Brazil, to facilitate the export and transport of sugarcane residues to feed European livestock, and to facilitate the export of Brazilian meat to the EU.
The objection to the proposal to increase the MRL for tricyclazol in rice (from 0.01 to 0.09 mg/kg) (56 votes in favour, 9 against and 8 abstentions) was adopted on the grounds that the use of this fungicide has been banned in the EU since 2016, as have imports of products with residues above the analytical quantification level.
To see the texts: fipronil: https://aeur.eu/f/9wb ; tricyclazol: https://aeur.eu/f/9wc (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)