Member states slam Commission’s plans to slash pesticide use

 EU member states have called for a new impact assessment on the European Commission’s proposal to slash the use and risk of pesticides, citing concerns over food security and resilience, but the EU executive has stood firm in its convictions.

Under the proposal on the sustainable use of pesticides regulation unveiled back in June after a series of setbacks, member states will be asked to set their own national reduction targets within defined parameters. 

Together, the targets are designed to add up to an EU-wide ambition to see the use and risk of pesticides halved by 2030, as set out in the Commission’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy.

In August, the Commission sent the outcome of an exercise on the expected national contributions to the EU’s legally binding reduction target to the EU capitals. (...)