EU parliament strikes down pesticide law

EU lawmakers have rejected a proposal to cut by half pesticide use within the bloc after a backlash from rightwing politicians and farmers.

The European parliament on Wednesday voted down the pesticides regulation by a big majority. It was one of the key outstanding pieces of the bloc’s Green Deal climate law, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions within the EU by 55 per cent by 2030 as well as improve biodiversity and ecosystems.

The rejection — a highly unusual occurrence — means the European Commission must consider withdrawing the proposal. Votes were 299 against the regulation, with 207 in favour and 121 abstentions.

One reason for the result was that many Green and socialist MEPs ended up voting against a bill they had previously supported because of right-wing efforts to weaken its provisions. The parliament’s Green group issued a statement after the vote saying “in the end, the text was not good enough for anyone to support it”.

Conservative lawmakers hailed the vote as a victory for farmers. Since the triumph of an upstart farmers’ movement in Dutch local elections in March, politicians have targeted agriculture as a crucial political constituency ahead of EU-wide elections next year.

Environmentalists and other supporters of the restrictions were appalled by the vote.

Sarah Wiener, an Austrian lawmaker who led negotiations on the law, called it a “very dark day for the environment and farmers” and said there was no willingness to compromise from the right, the far right and Europhobes.

Jutta Paulus, a German Green MEP, said: “The conservatives are putting the health of farmers and biodiversity at risk by fighting the reduction of pesticides with all means at their disposal . . . The massive use of pesticides endangers biodiversity and thus our drinking water, clean air and fertile soils.”

A spokesperson for the commission said that it had made an “ambitious proposal for a more sustainable use of pesticides in the EU” and that it “took note” of the parliament’s vote.

Victorious opponents of the proposed rules said such controls should not be allowed to harm agriculture.

“Let farmers farm!” said Alexander Bernhuber, a centre-right Austrian MEP. “We all want fewer plant protection products used on farmland. But reducing them must not jeopardise food production in Europe, make food more expensive, or lead to farmers quitting their businesses.”

The legislation had set a target of cutting the use of pesticides by 50 per cent by 2030. It also aimed to promote the use of environmentally friendly pest-control techniques among farmers.

More than 1mn EU citizens this year petitioned for a complete phaseout of pesticides within the EU. But farming organisations such as the EU industry body Copa Cogeca said cutting pesticide use by more than half would have a negative impact on yields and put food production across the bloc at risk.

Pesticide use varies among the EU’s 27 member states. Several eastern European countries led by Poland demanded exemptions to the law shortly after it was proposed by the commission in June on the grounds that they already tended to use lower levels of chemical pest control.

EU agriculture ministers also demanded in December that the commission provide more information about the basis for the bill amid concerns about its impact on food security following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a major grain producer.

In a letter responding to the ministers’ request, Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s Green Deal commissioner, said analysis undertaken by the commission showed that “climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation effects” were the most harmful factors in relation to food security.

While chemical and synthetic pesticides contribute to “stabilising yields in the short-term”, he said, there were also “positive effects” on food production from cutting pesticide use “in the medium to long term”.