On June 22nd the EU Commission will present a proposal for a new pesticide reduction regulation. This European law should reduce pesticide use and risk by 50% in 2030. It sounds good, but it is not enough nor new.
Coalitions of organisations demand pesticide reduction
A 2009 regulation should have already achieved this, but is not implemented. And it is not enough to stop the decline in biodiversity, the pollution of water and soil and the damage to our health. The proposal will be discussed and decided on by the EU member states. The proposal is under attack from the agrobizz lobby, using the Russian invasion in the Ukraine as an excuse. They say that pesticides are necessary to produce enough food. But it is quite the opposite: to produce healthy food in the long run we need healthy soils and biodiversity. This demands a drastic change towards a non-chemical agriculture.
That is why broad coalitions of organisations have written letters to ministers of agriculture, environment and health and parliament in their countries to ask for a very ambitious and necessary regulation. These coalitions against pesticides are very important to support the demands of the 1,2 million citizens that asked to Save Bees and Farmers.
So far letters were sent in 11 EU countries: Austria (PDF document), Belgium (Flanders (PDF document, 1.5 MB) and Wallonie (PDF document, 326.7 KB)), Croatia (PDF document, 1.1 MB), Cyprus (PDF document, 193.3 KB), Germany (PDF document, 191.6 KB), Hungary (PDF document, 142 KB), Ireland (PDF document, 165.5 KB), Luxemburg (PDF document, 173.8 KB), the Netherlands (PDF document, 306.2 KB), Latvia (PDF document, 167.9 KB) and Spain (PDF document, 230.5 KB). More are in preparation.
"Together let's build a future where the use of pesticides becomes an exception rather than the norm."