The EU Court of Justice dismissed an appeal from chemicals giant Bayer, which called for the annulment of a 2018 judgment upholding the virtual ban on three neonicotinoids, insecticides deemed very harmful to bees, a decision hailed this Friday by NGOs and beekeepers.
In 2013, the EU imposed drastic restrictions on the use of these three neonicotinoids, banning it from crops that attract bees (corn, oilseed rape, sunflower) with a few rare exceptions.
A measure strongly contested by two pesticide giants, the Swiss Syngenta and the German Bayer, but the European Union court had confirmed in May 2018 the restrictions imposed.
Ensure "the maintenance of the health of bee colonies"
He then pointed to “concerns” about the conditions for approval of neonicotinoids, while the EU had adopted rules for the protection of bees in order to safeguard their role as pollinators for flora and arable crops.
On Thursday, the EU Court of Justice dismissed a final appeal from Bayer, definitively upholding the restrictions imposed by Brussels.
The court noted in particular the legal obligation of the European Commission to ensure "the maintenance of the health of bee colonies", noting that the EU had been able, over the years, "to measure the impact (of the restrictions ) on agriculture and the environment ”.
"In certain Member States, agriculture has been able to function satisfactorily without having recourse to plant protection products containing the substances concerned", he observes in its judgment.
"The Commission had knowledge of active substances that can replace" neonicotinoids, also insists the court.
France's decision criticized
"The CJEU reaffirmed that the protection of nature and human health prevail over the narrow economic interests of multinationals, and that the precautionary principle remains a legal pillar of the EU", welcomes Andrea Carta, legal expert at the Environmental NGO Greenpeace.
While deploring that “several European governments”, including France, have “circumvented the 2013 ban by enacting repeated temporary exceptions” to authorize the targeted use of the targeted neonicotinoids.
Read alsoReturn of neonicotinoids: beets or bees, who to save?
"The maintenance of this European court decision proves beekeepers right when the French government is trying to reverse the ban on neonicotinoids, as we have seen for beet seeds", abounds Christian Pons, president of the National Union of French beekeeping, welcoming "excellent news for the protection of bees and biodiversity".
