Today’s vote on SUR was expected, but the outcome was already known: a voted text that goes even further than the Commission’s initial proposal which was already completely out of touch with farming on-ground realities. The result is that the Environment Committee’s proposal will go through the Plenary session with unrealistic targets, impractical provisions such as on sensitive areas, and with few concrete solutions to offer when acceptable compromises could have been made.
There is a point that all could agree upon, the proposal voted today in the Environment Committee would have unprecedented consequences for the whole of European agriculture if voted the same way in Plenary later this year. Indeed, no study has been carried out EU wide on the scope of the provisions included in the Environment Committee report: at least 50% EU-wide reduction for the chemical plant protection products, +65% for hazardous plant protection products, national targets based on complex calculation methodology, the specific ban of plant protection products in sensitive areas and a buffer zone of 5 meters! So today we’re clearly in the context of political posturing, with no real assessment of the consequences of such a vote.
All studies carried out on the European Commission’s proposal have already pointed to major production cuts, seriously impacting our strategic autonomy. In the current agricultural, economic, and geopolitical context, this decision by the Environment Committee reveals a certain frivolity! If only the regulatory ambitions were balanced in this text by such ambitious support and accompanied by concrete and compensatory measures. Since nothing has been properly evaluated, the proposal voted by the Environment Committee falls short in this respect too.
We continue to be left with an approach that does not consider what has already been achieved in the past in terms of implementing practices in Integrated Pest Management, and even neglecting the idea of looking at technical solutions or alternatives.
This unworkable proposal will now go to Plenary, where debates are once again likely to be politically exploited and polarised to the extreme. There are still acceptable compromises on the Commission text for farmers and agri-cooperatives, and we are asking MEPs to be pragmatic above all and focus on concrete solutions, so that this proposal is not rejected out of hand as it is too impractical on the ground and could have serious consequences on food security including food affordability in the EU.
Fonte: Copa Cogeca
