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Article: EU commits to 50% cut in agchem use by 2030
22 May 2020
This article is taken from our Agrow platform dated
22/05/20.
The European Commission has set a target to reduce the "overall
use and risk" of chemical pesticides by 50% and the use of more
hazardous pesticides by the same amount by 2030 under its new Farm
to Fork strategy.
The European Commission has set a target to reduce the "overall
use and risk" of chemical pesticides by 50% and the use of more
hazardous pesticides by the same amount by 2030 under its new Farm
to Fork strategy. To achieve this, it will "reinforce" the
environmental risk assessment of pesticides, facilitate
biopesticide approvals, and take action to reduce the length of the
approval process by EU member states.
The Commission will also revise the EU sustainable use of
pesticides Directive (2009/128) to enhance provisions on IPM and
promote greater use of alternative ways of protecting crops. The
50% target has been condemned as "not realistic" by the European
Crop Protection Association.
Farm to Fork, along with a new Biodiversity strategy, form part
of the Commission's "Green Deal" to move towards more sustainable
systems to tackle the impact of climate change. Support and
incentives for farmers to adapt will come through the farm payments
made under the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The strategy will be
reviewed by mid-2023.
The hazardous pesticides target is aimed at those that meet the
hazard cut-off criteria under EU approval rules or those that are
identified as candidates for substitution. A revision of rules on
biopesticide approvals is due by the last quarter of 2021, while a
proposal on revisions to Directive 2009/128 is planned for the
first quarter of 2022.
Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans repeated assurances
that impact assessments would be conducted before any legislative
proposals were made, stressing that the Commission would work with
those affected to make sure that measures were "workable". But this
prompted European farmers group CopaCogeca to question why targets
were set before impact assessments and what would happen if the
assessment found that they were unrealistic.
EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides
acknowledged that implementation of targets needed good data on
pesticide use. A proposal to revise the EU pesticide statistics
Regulation (1185/2009) to overcome data gaps is planned for
2023.
A further target is to have at least 25% of the EU's
agricultural land under organic farming by 2030. An action plan on
organic farming for 2021-26 is planned for later this year. The
pesticide and organic farming targets are included in the
Biodiversity strategy. Its objectives include the full
implementation of existing initiatives to protect pollinators,
which will be reviewed at the end of 2020 to see if further
measures are necessary. Another target is to bring back at least
10% of agricultural land under high-diversity landscape features,
including buffer strips, fallow land and hedges.
To encourage a global take-up of its policies, the Commission
wants trade deals to obtain "ambitious" commitments from third
countries on the use of pesticides. It is also considering a review
of import tolerances for active ingredients meeting EU cut-off
criteria for human health.
The European Parliament's Environment Committee gave a guarded
welcome but pointed out that the objectives needed to be
transformed into EU legislation. The Agriculture Committee said
that the strategy was "overly ambitious" and repeated calls for
more support for farmers already struggling with the coronavirus
pandemic.