The maximum permitted reduction in bee colonies due to pesticide use rises from 7 to 10 per cent. Efsa will now have to finalise the guidance document. The maximum permitted reduction in bee colonies due to pesticide use rises from 7 to 10 per cent. Efsa will now have to finalise the guidance document.
A step forward, according to the European Council. A step backward, according to environmentalists. The fact is that on 28 June last, European agriculture ministers reached an agreement on the need to define a specific objective to protect honey bees from pesticides. This objective would set at 10 per cent the maximum reduction in colony size across the European Union.
A clear majority of member states backed the Commission's proposal for the proposed objective at the Agrifish Council. The threshold supported by the ministers will now be taken into consideration by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) to finalise the guidance document. "Today the Council has taken a significant step towards defining a specific protection goal for honey bees," said Portuguese Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes in a statement. "Bees are not only an essential part of our ecosystems, but they also contribute to securing a sustainable future for agriculture by pollinating crops."
Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90 per cent of the world's food.
The apparent satisfaction of the institutional representatives comes after numerous member states had contested the significant reduction in pesticide use, particularly of neonicotinoids, considered toxic to honey bees and other important pollinators. This sparked a debate that has been ongoing since 2019 and came to a head yesterday. "Now we can put the discussions behind us and finally focus on achieving the desired results," said Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
This is the view of the Pesticide action network Europe (Pan), which explains how member states' experts had already agreed back in 2013 on a maximum reduction of 7 per cent in honey bee colony size due to pesticides. "The so-called bee guidance document was never approved by EU agriculture ministers because they feared the approach would remove too many pesticides from the market," the association explains. According to the group, which advocates for farming with minimal environmental impact, for around eight years member states would have continued to refuse to proceed with improving the risk assessment of pesticide toxicity to bees.
"We are very concerned because allowing a 10% reduction in honey bee colony size means we are accepting a significant impact of pesticide use on insects," stresses Martin Dermine, health and environment policy officer at Pan Europe. "This will keep on the market pesticides that are one of the main drivers of pollinator decline in Europe."
Under EU law, pesticides may only be used in agriculture if a comprehensive risk assessment demonstrates that such use will not harm human or animal health or result in unacceptable levels of environmental damage. Current risk levels are based on the terrestrial ecotoxicology guidance document drawn up by the European Commission in 2002.
In 2002, the Commission published guidance on terrestrial ecotoxicology that includes a section on the risk assessment of pesticides for honey bees. In 2011, the Commission asked Efsa for a scientific opinion as a basis for developing a risk assessment of plant protection products for bees (Apis mellifera and Bombus spp.) and to prepare a guidance document.
From 2013, the year the document was published, and despite the Commission's repeated efforts to secure its approval, a clear majority of member states consistently opposed that approval on the grounds that its implementation was not feasible in practice.
To move beyond this impasse, in March 2019 the European Commission asked Efsa to revise its 2013 bee guidance document. In the context of that revision, the majority of member states expressed a preference for a risk assessment approach that takes into account the natural variability of honey bee colony size. Among the factors that led to this decision is certainly also the requirement that objectives be "achievable". Evidently, a 10 per cent colony loss is considered the most realistic figure, even if the question genuinely remains whether more could not have been asked.