A strategy to ensure safer
use of pesticides
The European Commission has proposed a strategy to address
the threats posed by the use of pesticides to human health
and the environment. A proposal for a Framework Directive
sets out common objectives and requirements in order to ensure
coherence throughout the EU between the Member States which
have already adopted measures addressing these threats and
those who have not. The strategy will also contain two additional
law proposals: one on the requirements to be met by new pesticide
application equipment and the other one on the collection
of statistics on plant protection products. Together with
the strategy, the Commission has put forward a proposal
for a Regulation revising the 1991 directive on the placing
of plant protection products on the market.
The existing EU policies and legislation on pesticides scarcely
address the actual use phase of the pesticides life-cycle,
e.g. the temporary storage of pesticides at farm level, the
management/calibration of application equipment, the protection
of operators, the preparation of the spraying solution and
the application itself. As a result of misuses of pesticides,
including overuses, the percentage of food and feed samples
in which residues of pesticides exceed maximum regulatory
limits, has not decreased over the last ten years.
A proposal for a framework directive would make it mandatory
for all Member States to establish national action plans,
involving all the relevant stakeholders in the process. They
would also have to create a system of awareness-raising and
training of all professional users. Compulsory inspection
of existing application equipment would be introduced and
aerial spraying would be prohibited (derogations would be
granted in situations where there are no viable alternatives
or where it has clear advantages in terms of reduced impacts
on health and the environment in comparison to land-based
application).
Protection of the aquatic environment would be enhanced,
e.g. by the creation of buffer strips along water courses
and the use of low spray drift equipment. Member States would
designate areas of significantly reduced or zero pesticide
use. Safe conditions would be established for storage and
handling of pesticides and their packaging and remnants.
Member States would also have to create the necessary conditions
for implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which would
become mandatory as of 2014. In the context of IPM, the EU
would draw up crop-specific standards, the implementation
of which would be voluntary. Finally, a set of harmonised
indicators would be developed to measure progress in implementing
the Strategy.
If need be, existing legislation on pesticides will be amended
to integrate other measures such as improving the way compliance
with the legal requirements is monitored, promoting low pesticide-input
farming, reinforcing annual monitoring programmes on residues
of pesticides in food and feed, determining pesticide concentration
in water and intensifying research on pesticides.
Member States are invited to apply standard VAT rates to
pesticides in order to contribute to reducing the incentive
for illegal cross border exchange of non-authorised products
due to price differentials.
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