Joint appeal to the EU Commission: Over 130 organisations call for strong pesticide regulations in Europe

In solidarity with 137 environmental organisations from across Europe, Mouvement Ecologique has signed a joint letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Sent on 27 October, the letter calls for consistent adherence to EU pesticide legislation and increased efforts to implement it.

The background to this is an ongoing legislative process to “simplify” EU regulations in the area of food and feed safety, known as the “Omnibus”. Under the guise of “simplifying” food and f safety regulations, this project also threatens to weaken key environmental and social protection standards. For example, some Member States want to extend the transition periods for banned substances. Transition periods are periods during which farmers are allowed to continue using a plant protection product temporarily, despite the ban on its active ingredient for health or environmental reasons, before the ban takes full effect.

Environmental NGOs are calling on the Commission to uphold the protection of people, the environment and biodiversity and to base decisions on scientific evidence about the harm caused by synthetic pesticides.

In addition, numerous farmers across Europe have long been demonstrating that agriculture is possible without the use of harmful toxins – these practices must be promoted and more farmers supported in the transition.

This initiative is part of Meco’s long-standing commitment to reducing pesticide use and promoting more sustainable agriculture in Europe – for healthy soils, clean water and the protection of biodiversity.

The original letter can be found in the downloads section.