Bee-killing Insecticides Continue to be set Free in Romania
Press Release
BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination
16 January 2018
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
BeeLife and its member Romapis stand along all beekeeper colleagues after Romania issued for the 5th consecutive year a temporary authorisation for EU-wide restricted insecticides. Once again, the infamous neonicotinoids are being pumped into crops, while harming our bees and lowering the environment’s quality. The authorisation comprises seed treatment with Clothianidin, Thiamethoxam and Imidacloprid, all of which its use has been restricted in the EU since 2013.
According to article 53 of Regulation (EC) 1107/2009, authorisations are to be limited to “exceptional and restricted cases of obvious dangers to plant production or ecosystems that cannot be contained by any other reasonable means”. Besides, such authorisations are to be provided only when sufficient evidence for its necessity has been provided.
BeeLife and Romapis back Romanian beekeepers in raising a doubt on the “emergency” condition of such authorisations. There is great harm being done to bee colonies throughout the continuous use of dangerous bee-threatening insecticides. After 5 consecutive years of derogations, the beekeeping sector has taken a serious hit by a much avoidable situation.
Romanian beekeepers are now asking to be heard by their government and the EU. Sustaining bee losses to up to 50%, they are currently in a crisis that shouldn’t exist. EU rules have been established, and there is no reason why the Romanian government should be able to choose arbitrarily whether they apply those rules or not. Particularly when the Health and Food Audits and Analysis of DG Santé has recognised alternative actions, deeming neonicotinoids unnecessary in the case of Romania. In the midst of this lack of implementation of European and National legislation, beekeepers ask the EU to ensure bee safety.
Adding to this scandalous situation, the EFSA had been mandated to perform technical assistance to assess the emergency authorisations for the use of Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and/or Thiamethoxam granted by Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary on 15/09/2017. While PPP (Plant Protection Products) regulation establishes a delay of one month to provide answer to the request, the EFSA proposes the 15 May as deadline for the work.
Romapis, BeeLife and its members stand together to reject the actions of the Romanian government and insist on that these derogations should no longer be considered emergency actions after 5 years of continuous and, in our view abusive and unnecessary use by the Romanian authorities.
You can check Romanian continuous emergency authorisations available to the public in the following link.
-ENDS-
Contact: Andrés SALAZAR, BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination: comms@bee-life.eu; Constantin DOBRESCU, Romapis: office.romapis@gmail.com
NOTE TO EDITORS:
BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordination, is an association formed by professionals of the beekeeping sector from different countries of the European Union. Its main activity is the study of the impact on bees of environmental threats such as pesticides or genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
BeeLife works for the protection of bees based on the principle that 'bees serve as the canary in the gold mine', sounding the alarm that something is 'wrong in the environment'. Not least, bees create 30% of all our food by pollinating fruits, vegetables and arable crops such as sunflower and oilseed rape, having an inherent value that the Coordination is working to protect.