Uncertainty as There is Still No Scheduled Vote on Neonicotinoids Ban at the European Commission

Coordinación Apícola Europea de BeeLife

22 March 2018

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

European beekeepers and the 80 NGOs of the Save the Bees Coalition are holding their breath for the European Commission to take a vote today or tomorrow on bee-harming insecticides, neonicotinoids. Experts from the 28 Member States will meet for a session of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) on March 22nd and 23rd. A year ago, the European Commission had already presented a plan to extend the current restrictions on three neonicotinoid insecticides (imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam), but has yet to implement such proposal.

The European Commission has today a chance to prove its commitment to improving environmental conditions for bees and all pollinators. Now that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published their conclusions for risk assessment on neonicotinoids, the Commission has all the required evidence to take a step forward. Results are conclusive: neonicotinoids pose a risk to bees, and the Commission is enabled to act to implement further restrictions on them.

Pressure mounting up for the Commission to take a vote on extending the restrictions is not only coming from civil society. 86 MEPs have co-signed a letter addressed to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. In it, Members of the European Parliament state their concern and emphasise that "there is a strong evidence-based scientific consensus that neonicotinoids, a group of systemic pesticides affecting the central nervous system of insects, pose a risk specifically to honey bees and other pollinators".

Stakeholders expect a decision to be taken by the Commission, particularly after recent events in the European Parliament. The next day after the EFSA published their scientific review on the three neonicotinoids on February 28, the European Parliament voted almost unanimously to adopt the Erdõs report on beekeeping. The report includes recommended actions to ban pollinator-harming pesticides.

The current agenda for the PAFF committee still shows no indication of the Commission to present its proposals for voting. However, this is an ideal moment for the EC to take the next step following the presented scientific evidence. BeeLife and its members strongly encourage the Commission to haste and follow up on their initiative to ban these dangerous insecticides, as European beekeepers have been demanding for years.

-ENDS-

Contacto: Andrés SALAZAR, BeeLife European Beekeeping Coordinación: comms@bee-life.eu

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NOTA PARA LOS EDITORES:

La Coordinadora Apícola Europea BeeLife es una asociación formada por profesionales del sector apícola de distintos países de la Unión Europea. Su principal actividad es el estudio del impacto sobre las abejas de amenazas medioambientales como los pesticidas o los organismos modificados genéticamente (OMG).

BeeLife trabaja por la protección de las abejas basándose en el principio de que "las abejas sirven de canario en la mina de oro", haciendo sonar la alarma de que algo "va mal en el medio ambiente". No en vano, las abejas crean el 30% de todos nuestros alimentos al polinizar frutas, verduras y cultivos herbáceos como el girasol y la colza, por lo que tienen un valor inherente que la Coordinadora trabaja para proteger.