MEPs vote for tighter rules on pesticides

However MEPs voted to drop some of the most potentially damaging aspects of the proposed new legislation at the Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg this week.

MEPs were voting on two sets of proposals relating to the approvals process for pesticide products and their use on farms.

Key proposals rejected included an EU-wide 50 per cent cut in pesticide use over the next ten years; the introduction of a pesticides tax to fund organic and low input systems; compulsory notification of neighbours prior to spraying taking place; and compulsory ten metre buffer strips when spraying alongside watercourses.

NFU plant health adviser Paul Chambers said that while the 10m buffer strip proposal had been rejected there was still a requirement on member states to protect water. How this would be achieved would be left to member states.

He added that MEPs had voted for mandatory sprayer testing at five-year intervals. They had also voted in favour of a 50 per cent reduction in the use of pesticides classified as ‘very toxic’.

This would affect around 20 products including the herbicide and desiccant diquat (marketed in the UK as Reglone and others).

Votes to accept certain cut-off criteria under new legislation replacing the 91/414 plant protection products authorisation regulation could rule out the use of a large number of insecticides and was a cause for concern, said Mr Chambers.

Georgina Downs of the UK Pesticides Campaign described the result of the vote as “a positive step”. It would mean that pesticide use will be prohibited around residential and other public areas, she said.

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