Conservative backlash kills off EU’s Green Deal push to slash pesticide use – POLITICO – GWC Mag

STRASBOURG — Lawmakers killed off a central pillar of the European Commission’s Green Deal on Wednesday, rejecting a bill to slash the use of pesticides in farming in a vote that stunned environmentalists and delighted conservatives and farming groups.

The legislation, the Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR), was already in trouble after competing versions emerged from the committee stage of scrutiny. But most lawmakers had expected it to scrape through a plenary vote and then move to the next legislative stage — agreeing on a final text with EU member countries.

In the end, MEPs rejected the bill outright, with 299 votes against, 207 in favor, and 121 abstentions.

“This is a very dark day for the society as a whole and for the environment — and also for farmers,” said Austrian Green MEP Sarah Wiener, Parliament’s lead on the file from the environment committee.

The bill, proposed by the EU executive in July 2022, aimed to halve the use and risk of chemical pesticides in the EU, which have been linked to increased rates of cancer and diseases like Parkinson’s, as well as environmental degradation, including the decline of pollinating insects without which farmers can’t grow crops.

It also promoted the uptake of nonchemical treatment methods and less toxic biological pesticides.

But the measure faced concerted pushback from farm and agribusiness lobbies and conservative lawmakers over concerns that it would hurt the viability and competitiveness of EU farmers.

The largest group in the parliament, the center-right European People’s Party, called the result “sensational.” It said it was a rejection of left-wing extremism.

“This shows that pesticide reduction needs to be done with farmers and not against them,” said German conservative lawmaker Norbert Lins.

The pesticide vote represents a major scalp for the EPP as it seeks to position itself as the champion of rural voters in next year’s European election.

Earlier this year, it tried — and narrowly failed — to kill off a law to boost nature restoration across the bloc. Defenders of the Green Deal had to make major concessions to the EPP to save that measure, however.

End of the road

The Parliament’s vote marks the end of the road for the pesticides bill, which after nearly a year and a half of negotiations never made it to the last stage of negotiations in which the EU’s executive, intergovernmental and legislative branches hammer out a final deal.

In an unexpected turn, left-wing groups, including the Greens and the Socialists & Democrats, voted against the final text, after the EPP and other right-wing groups watered down many of the bill’s provisions by backing a raft of amendments.

Wiener moved to send the text back to the environment committee for revision, but the motion was defeated by 324 votes to 292.

Embittered, Wiener said: “The majority of MEPs have prioritized the profits of large agricultural companies to the detriment of the health of our children and the planet.”

The Commission could in theory still withdraw the proposal and propose a new text. The Council of the EU, which brings together national capitals, could proceed with a vote on its own. The Parliament could then vote on the Council’s position.

“But this won’t happen during this legislative term, there simply isn’t enough time,” Wiener said. “The SUR is dead in the water in this legislative term.” 

The bill’s defeat comes on the back of intensified lobbying efforts from the agrochemical industry, according to environmental groups and industry watchdogs.

“Finally!! Finally @EUparliament recognizes that the #pesticide regulation was poorly calibrated, unrealistic, unfunded … merely a pure ideological text!” Christiane Lambert, president of European farming group Copa, posted on X.

It also follows the European Commission’s announcement last week that the executive would renew the EU authorization for the use of controversial weed killer glyphosate, the most widely used pesticide in the world, for another 10 years.

Wiener dismissed comments from conservative lawmakers that, as a Green, she had taken an extremist approach to reducing pesticides.

She accused the agrochemical sector of ghostwriting the Parliament amendments that ended up weakening the bill to a point where it became “worthless.”

“I gave it my all … I showed flexibility and ended up bending over and backwards,” she said. “I could not believe that the whole text was being trampled like that.”

The EU’s largest pesticide industry group, CropLife Europe, whose members include companies like Bayer and Syngenta, did not reply to a request for comment about Wiener’s accusations against it. The group did say it remained committed to supporting the objectives of the Green Deal.

This story has been updated.