On Thursday 16 May, MEP Norbert Lins (EPP, German) drew the ire of many NGOs over the authorisation procedures for active substances (pesticides). These NGOs are calling on the European Commission to “promote agriculture aligned with the criteria of the ‘European Green Deal’ in its next mandate”.
A company that has developed a new substance will probably not be able to market it before 2040, said Norbert Lins, outgoing chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture, in a letter sent to Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides on 17 April.
Mr Lins is calling on the European Commission to review the pesticide authorisation process in order to address the shortage of available substances. “No pesticide should be banned unless a similar, sustainable and affordable alternative, with at least the same level of efficacy, is already on the market”, says Lins.
“While the current regulation is supposed to guarantee a high level of protection for human health and the environment, it already suffers from important caveats”, retorts a coalition of fifteen associations, including PAN Europe, BeeLife and Générations futures. These NGOs have written to the Commission to point out that the Court of Justice of the EU “has underlined the insufficient level of implementation” of the regulation on placing plant protection products on the market. “We urge you to refuse Mr Lins’ problematic proposition”, they conclude.
Link to letters: https://aeur.eu/f/c8s (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)