Bees: the 27 pave the way for new protection efforts

EU agriculture ministers agreed on Monday on how to take into account, in the assessment of pesticides, their effects on bee colonies, paving the way for new measures against the decline of these crucial insects. pollination.

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Pesticides can only be authorized in the EU if

has shown that there is no harm to human health and

effects

on the environment, but the criteria for assessing the impact on bees had not changed since 2002, according to the European Commission. Seized in March 2019 by the European executive, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has drawn up several scenarios making it possible to set

for the protection of honey bees in the evaluation of pesticides. Among the various methods proposed, the ministers of the Twenty-Seven, meeting in Luxembourg, concluded Monday that setting an

reduction threshold

the size of the bee colonies

,

according to a statement.

While the states were initially very divided on the level of this threshold, they finally agreed on "a maximum reduction rate" of 10% in the size of bee colonies throughout the EU. A greater decline in the bee population would therefore be considered critical. Several states are pleading for further lowering this threshold.

the statement said without further clarification. According to the UN, cited by the European Council, bees pollinate 71 of the 100 cultivated species providing 90% of the world's food.

However, in recent years, the collapse of populations of pollinating insects, which are very vulnerable to pesticides, threatens agricultural production. The French government also put on consultation on Monday a

aimed at countering the decline of bees - a plan promised by Paris in August 2020 after the temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoid insecticides, qualified as

, for the cultivation of beetroot. This French plan plans to assess the risk of all pesticides, including herbicides and fungicides, for pollinators with a view to a possible restriction, or even ban, of treatment on attractive flowering crops, which today only applies to insecticides.