The Council of Agriculture Ministers met on 19 May to find a common position on the new EU legislation on pesticides approval. Member states failed to find a compromise, particularly on the cut-off criteria to ban pesticides that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, immunotoxic or neurotoxic. A political agreement is therefore postponed to June.

The European Commission, and the new Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou herself, fought against some member states to keep the cut-off criteria as an essential tool to protect human health from exposure to hazardous pesticides.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Commissioner described the proposed pesticides approvals criteria as being “essential” towards delivering better protection for human health and the environment from exposure to hazardous pesticides.

The Commissioner also noted that current EU pesticides legislation, which she described as being out of date and based on “very old science”, was in need of urgent reform in order to bring it into line with new scientific evidence regarding the health impacts of hazardous pesticides.

Vassiliou concluded by stating that the Commission’s assessment of the impacts of its proposed pesticides approvals criteria will have no substantial impact on agricultural productivity - not least because many of the substances proposed for withdrawal are already banned by many Member States.

HEAL member PAN Europe welcomed the Commission’s determination to push for better protection of human health and the environment from exposure to hazardous pesticides. “In recent weeks the Commission and the Council of Ministers have endured sustained lobbying from representatives of the pesticides industry urging them to abandon measures designed to better protect human health and the environment” said Elliott Cannell, Coordinator of PAN Europe.

“It is excellent to see the Commission fighting for better legislation on pesticides - despite pressure from pesticides manufacturers. Public health must come before corporate profits. Vassiliou’s presentation sent out a clear message to the people of Europe: that the future of European food safety depends on the elimination of hazardous pesticides from the EU food supply chain. This is an assessment we fully support.”