A bitter setback for the environment and food security
After months of negotiations, the European Parliament failed to reach a position on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products (SUR) Regulation on Wednesday, November 22, 2023. The motion to refer the proposal back to the Environment Committee was also rejected. As a result, the trilogue negotiations cannot begin and there will be no pesticide regulation. Many EU citizens have spoken out in favor of a complete phase-out of synthetic chemical pesticides by 2035, but the conservative, right-wing and liberal forces in Parliament successfully prevented this. A very disappointing result, considering how important a reduction in pesticides is in view of the current extinction of species. And the second within a short space of time, see the extension of glyphosate approval.
You can find out exactly what the SUR is and what problem areas there were in the run-up to this vote here:
Endangers food sovereignty
"This decision jeopardizes food sovereignty and the health of current and future generations. It slows down the necessary change towards an environmentally friendly and nature-preserving agriculture. In the short term, this serves the interests of individual associations and commercial enterprises, but ultimately harms agricultural businesses in Europe. Farmers who are already working with reduced pesticide use now need support in other ways, for example through instruments of the Common European Agricultural Policy (CAP)," says Dr. Peter Weißhuhn, Project Manager for Insect Conservation at WWF Germany.
Slap in the face
"This is a slap in the face for the more than 1 million Europeans who called for binding pesticide reduction targets as part of the successful European Citizens' Initiative 'Save bees and farmers'. This is the worst possible outcome for the environment, long-term food security and democracy," says Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, GLOBAL 2000 environmental chemist.
It is a disgrace for the European Union, which a year ago at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP 15) campaigned for a binding reduction in the risk of pesticides, was successful in doing so, and is now rejecting the legislative proposal to implement these targets, GLOBAL 2000 said in a press release.
Tantamount to canceling the Green Deal
Florian Schöne, Managing Director of the environmental umbrella organization Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR), comments on the breakdown of negotiations on the EU Pesticides Regulation (SUR):
"Today is a bad day for the environment. The European Parliament's decision shows that a majority of conservatives and right-wingers reject real progress to curb species extinction. The excessive use of pesticides in agriculture has a serious impact on biodiversity, contaminates soil and water and has a negative impact on human health. In addition, the SUR should legally enshrine the goal of halving the use and risk of pesticides in the EU by 2030. This decision is tantamount to a rejection of the European Green Deal, the most important achievement of the current term of office of the EU Commission."
Strong agricultural lobby leads to black day for the environment
Sarah Wiener, Green MEP and rapporteur for the regulation, comments: "This is a black day for the environment, our health, but also for the future of agriculture. Driven by the strong lobbies of the agricultural and pesticide industry, the conservative and right-wing MEPs have succeeded in weakening the Pesticides Regulation on almost all points.
In addition to adopting toothless reduction targets, they have also removed the protection of nurseries, schools and old people's homes in so-called sensitive areas. The financial support for farmers during the transformation has been deleted without replacement and the mandatory integrated pest management has also been dropped - i.e. the use of preventive measures before applying chemical pesticides, for example through crop rotation and agroecological measures."
This report would neither have protected the environment and health, nor initiated a change in agriculture, and therefore would not have fulfilled any of the SUR's objectives.
In the end, the text was not good enough for anyone to support and was rejected. A bitter disappointment after we had found practicable solutions in the Environment Committee. This means that Parliament has no position and there can be no trilogue negotiations for the time being.
It is disappointing that the conservative and right-wing groups in parliament did not realize their responsibility until the very end and neither proposed compromises nor agreed to others. This result could have been avoided."
The SPÖ also expressed a similar view: "A coalition of conservatives, right-wingers and liberals had previously perforated the actually viable compromise and ultimately even prevented it from being referred back to committee," criticized SPÖ MEP Günther Sidl. "This is a genuflection to the interests of the large agricultural and chemical companies and shows just who the EPP (European People's Party) is actually making policy for."
Bitter for Green Deal
In our opinion, the topic is summarized very well in this audio contribution by Holger Beckmann.
Holger Beckmann, ARD, tagesschau, 22.11. 2023, 17.27 "Bitter for the Green Deal: EU Parliament rejects pesticide regulation"
