(POL) PESTICIDES - EU FAVOURS LESS EXAMINATION

The European Commission wants to do away with the ritualized examination of pesticides like glyphosate, which seem to pit politics against science every five to 10 years.

At first glance, the proposal to scrap routine expiry dates for most pesticide approvals appears to be a win for farmers and chemical companies alike, reducing uncertainty about continued access to widely used products.

The push is being driven by Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, whose simplification agenda has drawn scrutiny from health and environmental groups wary of loosening safeguards.

It’s “nothing short of a death sentence for farmers’ health, our children’s health, and the nature our food system depends on,” said Faustine Bas-Defossez, of the European Environmental Bureau. Time-limited approvals have long been a cornerstone of EU pesticide law, requiring substances to be re-evaluated regularly to reflect new scientific evidence on their health and environmental impacts.

The Food and Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus does away with that consistency.

While a small group of particularly high-risk pesticides would still face expiry dates and mandatory reassessments, the majority of chemicals would no longer be subject to routine renewals. The Commission argues that, for most products, the renewal cycle is slow and resource-intensive, tying up regulators who could instead assess newer, greener alternatives. Those delays, the Commission argues, “prevent a transition towards more sustainable active substances.”

A reduced workload for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) would allow the regulators to dedicate resources to products that do need reevaluation, and to alternative products.

“The proposal recognizes that Europe lags behind other geographies and loses competitiveness as a result,” said Adam Sebesta, director of Rud Pedersen Public Affairs’ substance advocacy practice. Defaulting to unlimited approvals, he added, “would be one of the biggest changes to EU pesticide rules in the past 20 years."

Austrian center-right MEP Alexander Bernhuber said the move would give farmers more flexibility. “It cannot be the case that approvals in some countries outside the EU are completed within three years, while our farms have to wait more than ten years for new products,” he said. More of this article (Politico) - link - more like this (pesticides) - link - more like this (ECHA) - link