EU seeks tweaks to pesticide rules to fast-track sustainable solutions
Member states have until next week to submit their views to the European Commission on a proposal for a common definition of biocontrol products, which stakeholders say could help speed up the approval process.
The Commission is asking EU countries to comment on the inclusion of a definition of biocontrol – natural solutions to pest control – in the bloc’s regulation on the evaluation and authorisation of plant protection products.
Examples of biocontrol include biopesticides and alternative methods, such as releasing a natural predator to control the population size of another species.
However, the EU lacks a common definition of biocontrol – a factor slowing down the authorisation process for solutions that are gaining ground globally as sustainable alternatives to chemical pesticides.
In the US, Brazil and Canada, new bio-based products are approved within one to three years after application, according to an industry presentation at the informal meeting of agriculture ministers in Sint Truiden, Belgium, on 8 April.
In the EU, current rules require such products to undergo the same lengthy 6-10-year approval process as chemical pesticides.
At a meeting in July, the Commission gave member states until next Friday (6 September) to give their opinion on a proposed new text on biocontrol definition.
The move has been welcomed by industry representatives, who have long been waiting for a definition that will speed up access to biocontrol solutions for European farmers.
“There is a lot of support for biocontrol [in the EU]. We just have to find a legal vehicle to be able to put it in the hands of farmers faster,” Jennifer Lewis, executive director of the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA), told Euractiv.
In June, at a meeting of the EU’s Single Market Enforcement Taskforce – a forum where the Commission and EU countries work together to address barriers in the bloc’s market – stakeholders outlined the challenges they face when in getting biocontrol products approved.
Producers complained about a burdensome approval process for bio-solutions, which they say hampers the transition to more sustainable agriculture, and Commission officials promised to take further steps to facilitate their uptake.
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A definition that died with the SUR
But this is not the first time that an EU-wide definition of biocontrol has been on the table.
The latest attempt at a legal definition was included in the proposal for a Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUR), a controversial text rejected by the European Parliament last year and withdrawn by the European Commission in February.
The proposal, which aimed to halve the use of pesticides by 2030, described biocontrol agents as “natural means of biological origin or substances identical to them”.
As the SUR did not become law, the definition did not materialise either. But Lewis is optimistic about the approach to the discussions now taking place.
“The context for supporting biocontrol may be very different if there’s not a discussion on reduction of pesticides because that’s very frightening for member states,” she said.
Meanwhile, “an increase in biocontrol is not scary,” she added.
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