On Tuesday 25 November in Strasbourg, the European Parliament voted in favour of amending EU rules to make it easier to make biological control agents available to protect crops. With 590 votes in favour, 28 against and 30 abstentions, MEPs adopted the own-initiative report by Alexander Bernhuber (EPP, Austrian) and Anna Strolenberg (Greens/EFA, Dutch) on this issue (see EUROPE 13758/10).
Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Health, said that the EU’s rules on plant protection products “are probably the strictest in the world in terms of safety requirements”. For some crops and some pests, farmers “simply have no solution left”, said the Commissioner.
However, he believes that in many cases, “biocontrol products could provide these solutions. However, the procedures for bringing them to market are too long - ten years have been suggested. Some of our industries therefore turn first to third countries before gaining access to the European market. The Commission will soon be proposing an ‘omnibus’ simplification package for food and feed”, said Mr Várhelyi.
This package will include targeted changes to the current regulatory framework for plant protection products in order to “speed up the availability of biocontrol products”, he said. Many of the requests made by Parliament “concern elements that the Commission is already examining in its proposal”, noted the Commissioner.
In his view, Member States should speed up the approval of new biocontrol active substances and the authorisation of products containing them. Other avenues mentioned by the Commissioner include strengthening the zonal authorisation process and mutual recognition of authorisations, particularly for products containing biocontrol active substances. “We are also considering giving the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) a greater role in supporting these assessments, particularly for biocontrol substances”, said the Commissioner.
Alexander Bernhuber welcomed the consensus between the political groups on the need to “shorten authorisation times” and on authorisation beyond national borders.
Christophe Clergeau (S&D, French) issued a warning: “We must not act as if biocontrols could be used as a pretext to destroy legislation on chemical pesticides” (see EUROPE 13757/3). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)