The European Parliament rejected, this Wednesday, November 22, a legislative project aimed at halving the use of pesticides in the European Union by 2030, forcing the Commission to present a new version of the text. A scenario that looks unlikely, just a few months before the June 2024 elections.
A crucial element of the EU Green Deal, this legislation proposed in June 2022 by the European Commission planned to halve by 2030, compared to the 2015-2017 period, the use and risks at the scale of the EU of chemical plant protection products.
The EPP (right) passed amendments aimed at considerably weakening this text which was, in return, rejected by 299 votes (207 for, 121 abstentions) by the MEPs meeting in plenary session. The latter also refused any referral to the parliamentary Environment Committee, effectively putting an end to the future of this text, which also deeply divided the member states.
No compromise found
Last October, this proposed legislation was adopted by the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, under the leadership of the left and the centrists of the Renew group (in which the Renaissance MEPs sit). The PPE group (right), for its part, fiercely opposed it, in unison with the organization of the majority agricultural unions (Copa-Cogeca) and states hostile to the text, against a backdrop of growing resistance to environmental regulations. of the EU, considered too restrictive.
According to the media Context, MEPs from the right, the center but also socialists wanted to “postpone the objective of halving the use of pesticides until 2035”, as well as introduce amendments to “let states define their sensitive areas and set their national targets reduction” in order to agree to vote on the legislative project. A compromise which could not be found with the left of the hemicycle, which therefore refused to vote on the text.
A “black day” for the Greens
The text’s rapporteur, environmentalist Sarah Wiener, said it was “a black day” for the environment and farmers. La France insoumise MEP Manon Aubry, for her part, expressed a “feeling of disgust”, judging that “liberals, the right and the extreme right […] are killing the whole Green Deal.”
For their part, right-wing MEPs welcomed this final result in the hemicycle. “The Commission’s shaky proposal has suffered a snub, it’s time to stop playing the sorcerer’s apprentice when it comes to environmental policy and take into account the realities of farmers on the ground,” greeted French MP Les Républicains Anne Sander. “Today is a good day for farmers and for everyone who thinks that the EU should refrain from imposing new burdens on them,” said German MEP Peter Liese.
The majority agricultural organizations also applauded this vote: “Finally! The European Parliament recognizes that the pesticide regulation was poorly calibrated, unrealistic, unfunded, but a pure ideological text”, welcomed the general director of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert.