ConFor fights EC plant protection directive

ConFor has set out its case to UK MEPs opposing the moves by the European Parliament to amend radically the plant protection directive.

The EC propose to change the approvals systems for pesticides in Europe from one based on risk assessment to one based on hazard criteria. The effect of these proposed changes will be to remove most of the small number of pesticides currently used in forestry.  A transport analogy would be to move away from making cars and roads safer, to banning all hazardous (ie motorised vehicles) in favour of bicycle, barge and dray.

Only some 0.3% of the UK’s plant protection product usage is by the tree sector and forestry is highly regulated. As with much of agriculture, the proposals would make forest nursery and Christmas tree production largely uneconomic and would substantially increase the cost and difficulty of forest establishment. The forestry and wood-using sector is growing in the UK and currently employs over 170 000 people directly and contributes over £7 billion to the economy. The result of these proposals would be to reduce the sector’s international competitiveness and to increase imports from those countries still using (many less responsibly) pesticides.

So far there has been no EU-wide regulatory impact assessment on the revised proposals. The UK’s Pesticide Safety Directorate has undertaken such a study and concludes: “If the full potential impact of the current parliamentary proposals were realised, conventional commercial agriculture in the UK (and much of the EC) as it is currently practiced would not be achievable, with major impacts on crop yield and food quality”.

Chris Inglis, ConFor’s Executive Director, said: “The implications have not been thought through.  It is quite simply outrageous.  Regulatory impact assessment, including public consultation, is widely acknowledged now as being a necessity before any such changes are made, so why has this not been done? It is vital that a comprehensive, EU-wide regulatory impact assessment is carried out before any further decisions are taken on the proposed replacement of Directive 91/414/EC.”