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EU Ministers agree on pesticide use strategy
May. 23, 2008
EU Agriculture Ministers have formally adopted an agreement on the European Commission's proposed strategy on sustainable pesticide use. The strategy, which aims to reduce the impact of pesticides on health and the environment, is based largely on existing good practice measures and has gained broad acceptance from regulators and industry alike. The Ministers rejected the more radical calls from some sections of the European Parliament for specific use-reduction targets, a move that will be welcomed by the agrochemical industry.
The "common position" agreed by Ministers in May follows an initial agreement reached last December. It covers the Commission's draft framework directive that will implement the strategy. The Ministers' proposed changes have the backing of the Commission and will go forward for a second reading by the Parliament later this year.
The Ministers have incorporated a large number of amendments made by the Parliament at its first reading last October, which sought to strengthen certain measures. However, the Ministers "did not think it was appropriate" to take account of some MEPs' calls to impose quantitative use-reduction targets. Ministers "preferred to concentrate on the reduction of risks rather than defining use-reduction targets".
Certain proposals and amendments on pesticide restrictions in specific areas were also rejected. The Commission had proposed to ban or "restrict to the minimum necessary" pesticide use in public parks and sports and school grounds, while the Parliament wanted to extend this to residential areas and the surroundings of public healthcare facilities. Instead, the Ministers redrafted the text to give EU member states the option to "minimise the risk of pesticides when used in these particular areas".
Ministers agreed with the Parliament and the Commission that there should not be an outright ban on aerial spraying, but that certain derogations should be allowed. However, they rejected some of the parliamentary proposals for specific conditions, which "risked creating excessive administrative burdens for competent authorities". In the common position, the Commission's original proposal is changed to specify that products used would have to be approved following a risk assessment and businesses providing aerial spraying would have to be certified. The Ministers also added the option of "tacit approval" of requests for aerial spraying by the authorities "after a certain period has elapsed".
With regard to specific measures to protect the aquatic environment, the Ministers incorporated amendments to highlight the importance of protecting drinking water and to "give preference" to pesticides not containing active ingredients that are defined as "priority hazardous substances" under the EU water framework Directive. On the issue of the compulsory establishment of buffer zones, Ministers considered that it was "more appropriate" to expand the provisions "to cover a wider range of mitigation measures which could be put in place when necessary".
In reviewing the scope of the strategy, the Ministers sided with the Parliament in extending the definition of pesticides to cover biocidal products. The Commission's original proposals were confined to agrochemicals.
The bulk of the strategy is based on existing practices that operate as voluntary initiatives in many member states, such as training and certification programmes. With regard to training for advisers and professional users, the Ministers agreed with the Parliament that there should be additional provisions to ensure that both initial and further training would be offered. They also added a parliamentary amendment that would require training to incorporate "initiation in comparative assessment to help professional users choose a good pesticide with the least adverse effect for humans and the environment".
Other changes specify that training would have to take into consideration the different roles and responsibilities of users, distributors and advisers. In addition, member states' training and certification systems would have to include requirements and procedures for granting, maintaining and withdrawing certificates.
The strategy also proposes conditions on the sale of pesticides. The Ministers added a parliamentary amendment that would require persons selling pesticides to professional users to provide advice not only on pesticide use but also on human health and environmental safety instructions. They propose an additional requirement for distributors selling to non-professional users to provide information on "low-risk products". A further amendment would allow the person holding a certificate to be not physically present but "still available in some other way". Ministers felt "it was necessary to provide this flexibility for small traders".
The Parliament had sought to considerably expand the provisions on information and awareness-raising, but the Ministers did not accept all its suggestions. Instead, they added the requirement that information provided to the public concerning pesticides should be "accurate and balanced".
Minor changes were made to proposed requirements for the handling and storage of pesticides and packaging to clarify that the measures only applied to professional users and, if applicable, to advisers. The Ministers also added a provision covering the recovery or disposal of packaging and unused pesticides.
With regard to the regular inspection of application equipment, the Ministers accepted nearly all the Parliament's amendments, which sought to give more precise inspection intervals. However, they decided not to go "a step further" by requiring shorter intervals between inspections from 2020. In addition, Ministers believed it would be "disproportionate" to require the inspection of all hand-held pesticide application equipment or knapsack sprayers and added an option to exempt them. They also incorporated the possibility, following a risk assessment, to apply different timetables and inspection intervals to certain types of equipment for small-scale use.
Other changes would require professional users to conduct regular calibrations and technical checks of application equipment. The Ministers also decided that member states should establish a certification system with mutual recognition.
The proposed strategy seeks to establish compulsory IPM standards. The Ministers agreed with the Parliament amendment to include a new annex in the directive that would contain the general principles of IPM. They replaced the term "low pesticide-input farming" with "low pesticide-input pest management" and specified that this concept would include IPM and organic farming.
The strategy would require member states to draw up national action plans on their implementation of all the measures. The Ministers agreed with parliamentary amendments to increase the requirements that these plans would have to satisfy. The additional requirements would stipulate that: member states should take into consideration the health impact of planned measures; the plans should describe how member states will implement the directive to reduce dependency on the use of pesticides; and that national action plans submitted to the Commission should be published on the internet.
The common position represents a "balanced and realistic solution" for a number of concerns expressed on the Commission's original proposals, conclude the Ministers.
Source: Agrow
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