European Parliament Committee calls on the Commission to impose an EU-wide ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides

The European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on the Commission to comply with the precautionary principle and impose an EU-wide ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until independent scientific studies prove no chronic toxic exposure to honeybees, environment and public health, originating from their use.

The European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
1. Reiterates concerns that increased mortality among honeybees and wild pollinators in Europe would, if left unchecked, have a profound negative impact on agriculture, food production and security, biodiversity, environmental sustainability and ecosystems;
2. Considers that the health of honeybees should be seen as an important bio-indicator for the state of our environment and the sustainability of agricultural practices;
3. Considers that it is important to take urgent measures to protect bee health, taking into account the specificities of beekeeping, the diversity of actors involved and the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity;
9. In view of the effect of pesticides on the development of bee colonies and bee larvae, recalls the importance for the chronic exposure of bees and bee larvae to these pesticides to be included in the pesticide evaluation scheme; also calls for account to be taken in the evaluation schemes of the new exposure routes of bees (e.g. guttation); calls for good experimental practices to be established for the evaluation of impacts on bees, particularly the obligation to present a complete review of the scientific literature and the results of all the tests conducted by the applicant;
10. Calls for a timetable to be established leading in the long term to the definitive withdrawal from the market of neurotoxic pesticides and of products for agricultural use containing these substances;
41. Recalls the new provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 to assess active substances in, and plant protection products as such, not only with regard to their acute effects, but also with regard to their chronic effects on colony survival and development, taking into account effects on honebee larvae and honeybee behaviour; however, points out
(a) that the data requirements, which need to be amended accordingly to do so, will only be applicable at the earliest at the end of 2013,
(b) adequate testing protocols still need to be developed in the meantime, and
(c) that the new provisions will only be applied to the approval of new substances or the renewal of existing approvals as well as to the authorisation of new plant protection products or their renewal, so that existing approvals/authorisations will not be assessed in an appropriate manner for many years to come, unless specifically reviewed;
42. Calls on the Commission to review the approval of all active substances suspected of contributing to colony losses of bees against the new provisions and data requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 as soon as the new data requirements are applicable;
47. Emphasises the application of the precautionary principle when it comes to the use of pesticides and agrees with the Commission that the use of pesticides in agriculture should be considered as one of the factors affecting bee health. Use of pesticides should be taken into account at least in order to clarify if and to which extent they may play a role in bee health. Special attention has to be paid to the use of pesticides of the neonicotinoid family that could cause digestive and hormonal disruption. Stresses that long-term effects of systemic pesticides are underestimated and may partially explain the decline in bee populations;
48. Calls on the Commission to comply with the precautionary principle and impose an EU-wide ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until independent scientific studies prove no chronic toxic exposure to honeybees, environment and public health, originating from their use;

Source:
European Parliament, OPINION of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on honeybee health and the challenges for the beekeeping sector, 14.7.2011 (attached)