MEPs voted to ban the use of neonicotinoids from 2018. The text, less ambitious than expected, provides for exemptions until 2020.
Bee-killing insecticides are now… almost banned in France. The deputies adopted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday the text banning, from September 2018, the use of insecticides from the neonicotinoid family. However, exemptions will be possible until 2020, which considerably limits the scope of the text.
The debate, which lasted more than two hours, was part of the third reading of the Biodiversity bill. The text relating to the ban in 2018 was approved by 36 deputies; 31 were campaigning for a ban from 2020.
Substitute
The amendment by rapporteur Geneviève Gaillard (PS) voted by the deputies maintains the principle of a ban from September 1, 2018, as decided by the Assembly at second reading. But it provides “that exemptions from this ban may be taken by a joint decree of the ministers responsible for agriculture, the environment and health. These exemptions may be granted until July 1, 2020 ”.
The ministers responsible for defining these exemptions will be able to rely on the work of the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) which “will draw up a report comparing the benefits and risks” of neonicotinoids and the available substitute products or methods.
This amendment was supported before the debate by the Minister of Ecology who wanted “a strong gesture” but “with realism”. “Clear prospects must be set for the industry to invest in substitute products”, argued Ségolène Royal, who was also delighted on Twitter for this vote.
Neonicotinoides: France at the forefront to protect health, the environment & develop alternatives to pesticides pic.twitter.com/xACIOkAWsa
– Segolene Royal (@RoyalSegolene) June 23, 2016
“Irresponsible”
On the NGO side, the tone is a little less enthusiastic. Leading the way in this fight, Générations Futures sees in this vote rather an “unacceptable setback”, a submission of the legislative power “to pressure from the FNSEA. [Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles] and agrochemical lobbies ”.
“Knowing that neonicotinoids decimate 300,000 bee colonies every year in France, so there are one million two hundred thousand bee colonies that the National Assembly has just coldly decided to disappear in France over the next four years ! », Declared François Veillerette, spokesperson for Générations Futures, quoted in a press release.
The NGO also deplores that the use of these insecticides has “sharply increased in France in recent years (+ 31% from 2013 to 2014!” And protests against a decision deemed “irresponsible”.
A petition which has collected more than 600,000 signatures calling for a ban on neonicotinoids was submitted in June by NGOs to Ségolène Royal. Which had promised to “put all its weight in the battle” despite the internal divisions of the government on this issue. Indeed, the Ministry of Agriculture has always been in favor of a progressive ban, not effective before 2020. In the end, it will have had the last word …
.
