Today, 23 March 2017, the European Commission has presented to the Member States its draft regulations to ban neonicotinoids. A vote by Member State could take place in May.
In the frame of the Comitology process, the European Commission is presenting, in the Standing Committee on Plant, Animal, Food and Feed, 3 draft regulations to ban the 3 bee-killing neonicotinoids in the entire EU. Imidacloprid, Clothianidin and Thiamethoxam would not be authorised with an exception for permanent greenhouses that are supposedly completely closed systems.
When the European Commission (EC) restricted the 3 neonicotinoids in 20131, the producers (Bayer for imidacloprid and clothianidin and Syngenta for thiamethoxam) were requested to provide the EC with socalled ‘confirmatory data’ by 31 December 2014. Based on these data, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has carried out a peer review and updated its risk assessment. Continue reading