What the European Commission intends to do
The Commission is therefore assessing the Pesticides Directive and the impacts of possible future measures aimed at significantly reducing the use and risks of chemical pesticides.
The assessment will determine to what extent the intended objectives of the Pesticides Directive are relevant today and to what extent the Directive has achieved them. It will examine the reasons for the weaknesses observed in the implementation and enforcement of the legislation.
The assessment will determine whether the Directive is the best tool designed to sufficiently promote low-pesticide pest management systems, as well as to take advantage of existing knowledge and new discoveries and technologies and the wider application of innovative and precision farming techniques that can help reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides.
This assessment will examine to what extent a coherent link with other EU laws and policies such as agriculture, water, waste, worker safety, agricultural machinery and biodiversity has been sufficiently implemented. and whether this influenced the achievement of the objectives.
The assessment will take into account the recent assessment of EU legislation on plant protection products and pesticide residues and assess how to what extent these legislative acts, together with the Pesticides Directive, provide for a coherent policy framework. This work will assess the costs and benefits of actions and their European added value.
The scope of the assessment will also cover the harmonized risk indicators established by Commission Directive (EU) 2019/782 which characterize the potential risks associated with the use of pesticides. As regards improving the monitoring of the effects of the use of pesticides, the assessment will also cover the Commission's guidance on monitoring and studying the impacts of the use of pesticides on human health and the 'environment. This work will determine the effectiveness and consistency of data collection requirements in the Pesticide Statistics Regulation to support surveillance.
The evaluation will cover the period from 2011 (year in which Member States transposed the Directive) until 2020. The analysis will compare the objectives with those of the years prior to 2011, taking into account the influences of the elements. exterior. The geographic scope will be the EU Member States, including the UK until it exits the EU.
The preliminary results of the assessment will be used to establish the baseline for the impact assessment, refine the definition of the problem and policy options, and feed into their analysis. You will find below for download the full document made available by the EU (this document is in English) and on the Consultation website.
What we want
Although all the studies have already been done on the subject, the roadmap that you present to us again wishes to carry out an impact study.
As a European citizen, we find that this is a waste of time and money, especially since everything has already been done on this subject (see here this complete document 1) and that nothing obliges the Commission to do this impact study (the Green Deal, in this reaffirms the urgency of reducing the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030, allows us to get rid of it). However, if the Commission persists in wanting to carry out this study, the European Commission would then have to include in the economic calculations all the negative externalities generated by the current dominant agricultural system (losses in biodiversity, environmental pollution, impacts on human health of users and other exposed persons etc.) It would also be essential for the EU to equip itself with a "toolbox" highlighting all the non-chemical alternatives (products and methods) which are already available for farmers, as well as the promotion of systems based on IPM (alternative agricultural systems that allow the transition to the agro-ecological model of organic farming). Regarding "the likely social and health impact", the consultation indicates that reductions in the use and risks of chemical pesticides are expected to have positive health effects as they would reduce direct exposure to pesticides for users. of pesticides, including farmers, and for all exposed populations, especially those living in rural areas.
These positive effects on health would translate into economic benefits (reduction in health expenditure, increase in labor productivity). Thus, reduction targets combined with restrictions on use would address societal concerns and meet society's demands for healthier food choices. It would strengthen the position of farmers and rural communities in society as a supplier of healthy food with respect for the environment. In addition, the roadmap should include precise details of how the EU intends to monitor and protect populations exposed to pesticides. Finally, it is imperative that the Commission include in its objectives the final phase-out of synthetic pesticides by 2035 as expected by thousands of Europeans (cf. the current European citizens' initiative on this subject) or even in France for more than a million people demand the end of synthetic pesticides as soon as possible.
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Although all the studies have already been done on the subject, the roadmap that you present to us again wishes to carry out an impact study. As a European citizen, we find that this is a waste of time and money, especially since everything has already been done on this subject (see here this complete document 1) and that nothing obliges the Commission to do this impact study (the Green Deal, in this reaffirms the urgency of reducing the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030, allows us to get rid of it). However, if the Commission persists in wanting to carry out this study, the European Commission would then have to include in the economic calculations all the negative externalities generated by the current dominant agricultural system (losses in biodiversity, environmental pollution, impacts on human health of users and other exposed persons etc.) It would also be essential for the EU to equip itself with a "toolbox" highlighting all the non-chemical alternatives (products and methods) which are already available for farmers, as well as the promotion of systems based on IPM (alternative agricultural systems that allow the transition to the agro-ecological model of organic farming). Regarding "the likely social and health impact", the consultation indicates that reductions in the use and risks of chemical pesticides are expected to have positive health effects as they would reduce direct exposure to pesticides for users. of pesticides, including farmers, and for all exposed populations, especially those living in rural areas. These positive effects on health would translate into economic benefits (reduction in health expenditure, increase in labor productivity). Thus, reduction targets combined with restrictions on use would address societal concerns and meet society's demands for healthier food choices. It would strengthen the position of farmers and rural communities in society as a supplier of healthy food with respect for the environment. In addition, the roadmap should include precise details of how the EU intends to monitor and protect populations exposed to pesticides. Finally, it is imperative that the Commission include in its objectives the final phase-out of synthetic pesticides by 2035 as expected by thousands of Europeans (cf. the current European citizens' initiative on this subject) or even in France for more than a million people demand the end of synthetic pesticides as soon as possible.