In response to a letter from a Scottish MEP, and in spite of mounting evidence that European risk assessments for agricultural chemicals are deeply flawed, European health commissioner John Dalli has said the Commission will not be hurried into introducing stricter pesticide controls.

Dalli told MEP George Lyon that the Commission would not be rushed into a knee-jerk reaction following bans on neonicotinoid seed preparations Ilium OSR and Cruiser OSR in France. The French government introduced the bans after scientific investigations linked the pesticides with colony collapse disorder in bees and adverse effects on other insect pollinators.

image expired

Mr Lyon claimed the studies had not been peer-reviewed and had been criticised since their release earlier this year, though both bee studies which led the French government to ban the pesticides in June were published in peer-reviewed journal Science.

Nevertheless, the MEP welcomed Commissioner Dalli’s assurances that he would not immediately push for a Europe-wide ban. Dalli said the Commission would ask the European Food Safety Agency to carry out an assessment to examine the possible link between neonicotinoids and bee health before making a decision based on the EFSA’s findings.

Mr Lyon said, “We are all concerned about the decline in bee numbers but any action taken to ban substances must be taken on independent scientific evidence and it is for EFSA to carry out that independent assessment before decisions are taken.”

In May, the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) announced that, following an evaluation of the risk assessment process carried out at the behest of the European Commission, it had identified a number of shortcomings in the system which could mean bees and other insect pollinators are at risk.

Earlier this week, scientists in Germany called for the immediate tightening of the EU’s agricultural chemical risk assessments after they discovered bats are more at risk of pesticide exposure than had previously been assumed, and that the animals are not taken into adequate consideration under current assessment procedures.

Syngenta, which produces Cruiser, has vowed to fight the French ban. In August the Versailles Administrative Court ruled against the company and upheld the French government’s decision. Syngenta has promised to take the case to France’s highest court, the Conseil d'Etat.

Tweet