The European Commissioner for Starts-ups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zakharieva, took stock of the EU’s efforts to protect bees during a debate at the European Parliament’s plenary session on Thursday 19 June.
The revised EU Pollinator Initiative and the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy aim to “restore pollinator populations”, explained the European Commissioner. The EU’s actions include support for farmers, “in particular through the development of nature credits” and “advisory services for farmers” as well as increased monitoring of the use of pesticides, by increasing “the use of low-risk products”. Ekaterina Zakharieva also mentioned that a delegated act on pollinator monitoring was being prepared, “as required by the regulation on nature restoration”.
Valentina Palmisano (The Left, Italian) called on the EU to “show the political courage to apply measures consistently and quickly” to protect pollinators in the face of “intensive farming, pesticides and the disappearance of habitats”. Younous Omarjee (The Left, French), for his part, called on the European Commission “not to give in to the scuttling of the European Green Deal, to ban the most dangerous substances and to support agro-ecological practices”.
Sebastian Tynkkynen (ECR, Finnish) stressed that “the availability of food is one of the fundamental pillars of security” and that “up to 80% of our agricultural crops depend on pollination by insects” while paradoxically denouncing “green ideology”.
Tomislav Sokol (EPP, Croatian) warned that protecting pollinators should go hand in hand with support for beekeepers “in the face of fierce competition from third countries exporting low-quality honey”. He therefore called for tighter border controls, the introduction of stricter import controls and better protection for European beekeepers in trade agreements with third countries. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)