Reducing pesticide use
 
Pesticides are used all around us on a daily basis with the vast majority of citizens completely unaware.
 
Under the proposed new Europe-wide rules, pesticide use will be either forbidden or severely reduced if close to schools and parks or near hospitals.
 
Also likely to be banned, if granted approval from EU members, will be the wholesale  spraying of crops from the air - especially near housing estates.
 
Central to the regulation is the concept of “Integrated Pest Management” which aims to promote non-chemical pest control methods such as crop rotation.
 
Currently there are no EU rules that restrict the use of pesticides in the day to day environment.
 
Christa Klaß of the centre right EPP-ED group is the German MEP who has drafted a report for the Parliament on the measures. Ahead of the vote she has said that new measures will provide “more safety for the user, the consumer and the environment”.
 
New pesticides - Cancerous substances outlawed
 
Also being debated are new rules which would tighten the safety rules for the placing of new pesticides on the market.
 
If passed, the regulation will outlaw substances that are potentially cancerous (carcinogenic), as well as ones that are harmful to human reproduction (reprotoxic).
 
Also targeted in the measure are those that are harmful to genes (genotoxic) or those that impact adversely on hormone production (endocrine-disrupting).
 
Substances that attack the nerves or the immune system will also be outlawed.
 
For new pesticides, the regulation will draw up a list of substances that can be used safely. This list will form the basis of the national licensing of pesticides.
 
This particular regulation is being steered through Parliament by German Green MEP Hiltrud Breyer who has described the proposed measures as a “milestone” for health and environmental protection.
 
Both the Breyer and Klaß reports have reached the second reading of the co-decision electoral procedure.
 
Both MEPs along with their colleagues have already reached agreement in principle with the EU Environment Ministers over the terms of the likely regulations.