The European Parliament has vetoed a proposal from the European Commission to regulate those pesticides that may interfere with human hormones.

The European Commission will now have to draft a new text, which is already four years overdue, as opinions diverge across the EU on the potential restrictions to impose on those chemicals.

The Commission had proposed a set of scientific criteria to determine which chemicals should be classified as endocrine disruptors, leading to their use being restricted or banned. The proposal excluded those pesticides specifically designed to act on the hormones of parasites.

With 389 against, 235 in favour and 70 abstentions, MEPs rejected the Commission’s proposal for defining endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC)

“The main reason for the MEPs’ rejection is that the Commission has overstepped its mandate in proposing to exempt from the definition certain pesticides and biocides specifically designed for having an endocrine effect,” said the NGO Women in Europe for a Common Future.

 “There is evidence of adverse reproductive effects [infertility, cancers, malformations] which could also affect thyroid function, brain function, obesity, metabolism, insulin and glucose homeostasis,” the statement added about endocrine disruptors, quoting a World Health Organisation report.

The European Crop Protection Association which has opposed the criteria from the outset , said they would have been “unworkable,impractical and would have impacted negatively on the competitiveness of European Farming “.