Debate over a proposed moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides continues to rage in Europe as member states' farm ministers prepare themselves for negations next week.

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Talks have broken down twice since January, when the European Commission suggested introducing a partial ban on neonicotinoids, the most widely used family of pesticides in the world, in response to advice from EU health watchdog EFSA. In January, EFSA released the results of a scientific review which showed three widely used neonicotinoids pose an "unacceptable" risk to bees and potentially other insect pollinators.

Opinion amongst EU leaders has been divided between those who want immediate action to address the threat posed by neonicotinoids and those, including the UK and Germany, who have attempted to delay action, calling instead for more evidence. However, the Commission has been unswerving in its intention to introduce a moratorium by July.    

Speaking before the agriculture council, Health Commissioner Tonio Borg last month declared, "The health of our bees is of paramount importance – we have a duty to take proportionate yet decisive action to protect them wherever appropriate."

Meanwhile, although Defra's own field tests showed no clear link between exposure to neonicotinoids and the success of bee colonies, all bee colonies tested were found to have been exposed to neonicotinoids, and new evidence continues to emerge from other institutions. Wildlife and environment groups have said the weight of evidence implicating neonicotinoids in declines is now so great that the government can no longer refuse to act; they have called on Defra to support a ban until neonicotinoids can be proven to be safe.

This Friday, a coalition of conservationists and campaign groups will march in central London to demonstrate against Defra's refusal to support proposals for a moratorium. The March of the Beekeepers is being backed by goups including Buglife, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network UK, RSPB and the Soil Association.

CEH review adds to confusion

On Monday, a team of experts published a review of studies examining losses of insect pollinators which revealed that insects are under threat globally from a range of pressures. Most studies so far have been conducted on bees, as they are commercial insects, whilst some show wild pollinators, responsible for the vast majority of insect pollination are also suffering declines.

The review, carried out by an international team of 40 scientists from 27 institutions involved in the UK's Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI), concluded that bees and other insect pollinators are under threat from land-use intensification, climate change, and the spread of alien species, diseases and exposure to pesticides.

Dr Adam Vanbergen from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and science coordinator of the IPI led the review. He said, "There is no single smoking gun behind pollinator declines, instead there is a cocktail of multiple pressures that can combine to threaten these insects. For example, the loss of food resources in intensively-farmed landscapes, pesticides and diseases are individually important threats, but are also likely to combine and exacerbate the negative impacts on pollinators."

The researchers concluded that "a complex interplay between pressures (e.g. lack of food sources, diseases, and pesticides) and biological processes (e.g. species dispersal and interactions)… underpins the general decline in insect-pollinator populations."

They said stakeholders in government, industry and research organisations would need to work together to address the situation and recommended preserving habitats, broadening pesticide risk assessment criteria, and addressing disease. The researchers stopped short of wading into the ongoing debate over banning certain preparations.

However, Professor Simon Potts from the University of Reading, one of the report's co-authors, did say, "The costs of taking action now to tackle the multiple threats to pollinators is much smaller than the long-term costs to our food security and ecosystem stability. Failure by governments to take decisive steps now only sets us up for bigger problems in the future."

Professor Vanbergen added that pesticide risk assessments should be broadened to assess sub-lethal effects on insects (damage done to the creatures without killing them outright) and include more pollinator species. He said more sustainable pest management strategies are also a necessity.

Globally, insects provide pollination services to about 75 percent of crop species and enable reproduction in up to 94 percent of wild flowering plants. Pollination services provided by insects each year worldwide are valued at over £130 billion; according to the Natural Environment Research Council, increased production of crops reliant on insect pollination has led to a threefold increase in the need for pollinators worldwide since 1961.