Time for EU Authorities to Tackle Emergency Authorisations of Dangerous Pesticides
Key takeaways:
Member States are abusing the legal loopholes that enable emergency authorisations of banned chemicals.
Chemicals reintroduced into the environment by emergency authorisations are highly toxic, introducing more significant risks to environmental and human health than authorised substances.
The persistent abuse of emergency authorisations calls for action by EU authorities to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement of legal procedures.
A recent study has sounded the alarm that some EU Member States are continuously breaching the law by granting emergency authorisations for banned pesticides. The study underscores the profound impact of emergency authorisations on human and environmental health. The evidence on the abuse of emergency authorisations and their harmful impacts keeps increasing. In response, BeeLife has requested that the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG Sante) take action.
BeeLife and other environmental organisations have denounced the misuse and illegal grant of emergency authorisations for years. Reintroducing banned pesticides into the market has had detrimental effects on the environment, human health, and beekeeping. Additionally, this new study has revealed with more precision that:
Emergency Authorisations are reintroducing the most toxic and harmful chemicals to our environment since banned chemicals are more contaminant than approved ones.
Many emergency authorisations breach legal limits of time periods and fail to follow established procedures.
There has been a sharp increase in emergency authorisations in the EU.
Emergency authorisations are spreading in the environment and food chain.
Considering the problematic situation, the legal loopholes that sustain it and the insufficient enforcement of legal procedures, BeeLife calls on DG Sante to take action. In a letter addressed to DG Sante, BeeLife calls to:
Strengthen monitoring and enforcement of emergency authorisation (EA) practices across Member States to ensure compliance, prevent misuse, and take action against violators.
Promote sustainable pest management strategies and reduce reliance on toxic substances through increased support for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and agroecological approaches.
Enhance transparency and reporting for EA use, ensuring documented, justified, and publicly scrutinised authorisations.
Collaborate with Ministries of Health and Agriculture to reassess the EA process, identify gaps, close loopholes, and align it with EU sustainability goals for the agricultural sector and public health protection.
The evidence on the harmful impacts of emergency authorisations abounds. It is now time for European authorities to redress the situation, tackling legal loopholes and boosting the adoption of safer practices. In a recent letter to DG Santé's Director General, Sandra Gallina, BeeLife has presented these arguments and reiterated its readiness to collaborate to halt the abuse of emergency authorisations.
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