Today the Agricultural Council will be discussing measures to streamline or simplify the CAP greening payments. 18 member States oppose the European Commission’s proposal to ban use of pesticides in the Ecological Focus Areas.
PAN Europe appeals to the European Commission to maintain their proposal for the ban of pesticides in ecological focus areas. The current proposal is a simple and logical way for EU citizens to recognize the importance and intent of ecological focus areas.
It was decided as part of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to establish a green component whereby larger farms must set aside areas “to safeguard and improve biodiversity on farms.” These areas are known as Ecological Focus Areas. Paradoxically, it was left to member states to decide whether to allow the use of pesticides in these areas (1). Only a few Member States have decided to implement such restrictions: four for catch crops and one for nitrogen-fixing crops (2).
Aiming to streamline and simplify the implementation of greening provisions, the European Commission has now proposed to ban the use of pesticides in agriculturally productive areas of EFAs. 18 Member States have signed a joint statement before today’s agricultural council contesting this idea, arguing that a pesticide ban in EFAs will ‘directly limit the productive decisions of farmers’ (3) completely ignoring the overall purpose of EFAs, which is to improve biodiversity on farms. PAN Europe and its members find such a move shameful and outrageous.
Francois Veillerette, president of PAN Europe, says ‘Banning pesticides is a simple and humble move to help citizens understand the “ECOLOGICAL” in ecological focus areas. If we can’t even ban pesticides in EFAs, it is worth considering at least the continuation of the payment of the greening of the CAP in the next EU budget review?’
PAN Europe calls on the European Commission to maintain its proposal and reminding as an example the report from the European Economic and Social Committee which say: “the use of pesticides in ecological focus areas is diametrically opposed to the intention of greening agricultural policy: pesticides do not help to increase biodiversity but damage it” (4).
Contacts: Henriette Christensen, PAN Europe, henriette [at] pan-europe.info tel: +32 2 318 62 55
(1) http://www.pan-europe.info/press-releases/2014/03/pesticides-use-ecologi...
(2) http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/direct-support/pdf/2016-staff-working-do...
(3) Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the statement: http://bit.ly/2dhF17s
(4) Opinion by the European Economic and Social Committee of 21 September 2016 on the biodiversity policy of the EU, Article 4.7.4, http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.nat-opinions.38740
