The European Parliament has not set a date to vote on the European Commission's proposal to extend how long pesticide active substances can stay approved in the EU. A joint vote of the environment (ENVI) and agriculture (AGRI) committees on a compromise text, expected on 5 October, did not take place, and a negotiating meeting planned for late September was postponed.
The proposal is part of a wider food and feed safety simplification package known as Omnibus X. According to estimates from the French NGO Générations futures, it would lengthen the maximum approval period for most pesticide and biocide active substances from the current 10 to 15 years to as long as 25 years. The group estimates that at least 49 of the 421 synthetic active substances now approved in the EU would see their approvals extended.
The Council of the EU, under Ireland's presidency, adopted its negotiating mandate on 29 and 30 September, scaling back the Commission's original plan for near-unlimited approvals while still lengthening authorisations well beyond today's limits. More than 500 scientists and public health and environmental officials had earlier asked for the process to pause until its impacts are independently assessed.
On 7 October the Brussels watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory alleged that demands from pesticide makers and farm lobbies, including CropLife Europe, Bayer and Copa-Cogeca, are closely reflected in the Commission's text and in amendments by the co-rapporteurs, MEPs Herbert Dorfmann and Michele Picaro. These are an advocacy group's allegations, not the findings of an inquiry, and Global Agriculture found no public response from those named.
More than 100 organisations, among them Greenpeace France, Générations futures, Foodwatch and farmer and pesticide-victim groups, called rallies across France on 10 and 11 October. Once Parliament adopts its position it must agree a final text with the Council; both aim for a provisional deal by the end of 2026.
Photo: Stefan Thiesen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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