Dublin PP Symposium 2024 – New Sustainable Use Legislation in Europe Challenges and Opportunities
Dublin PP Symposium 2024 – New Sustainable Use Legislation in Europe Challenges and Opportunities
On the 21st of November 2024 Kerona Scientific held its 5th Dublin Plant Protection Symposium and had the pleasure of hearing from the European Crop Care Association (ECCA) as Paolo Marchesini presented “A New SUR in a Changing Europe: Facing Challenges and Embracing Opportunities”.
Paolo outlined that we are now at a turning point of the discussion on The Sustainable Use (SU) legislation, which started several years ago, as we have a new European Commission and Parliament in place. He pointed to the Health Commissioner-designate Oliver Varhelyi’s answer to the European Parliament questions on 22nd October 2024, where Mr. Varhelyi had been asked about his view on plant protection products (PPP). The answer highlighted the priority of bringing together the Member States (MS) and other stakeholders to look at how to improve the implementation of The SU Directive (SUD). Paolo commented that this is important because it shows that SU legislation is back on the table, in the form of a Directive rather than a Regulation.
Paolo then narrated the history of the SU Regulation (SUR) from proposal in July 2022 to rejection in early 2024. The Regulation was part of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy with the target of 50% reduction of PPP use by 2030. Ultimately it was a political decision to leave it to the new Parliament. The targets of the proposed SUR were very ambitious and legally binding, including complete bans in sensitive areas, mandatory Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and electronic record-keeping requirements.
Paolo went thought the four main challenges of the proposed SUR, leading to its rejection: food security, economic feasibility, regional disparities and implementation. After a lot of discussion in Parliament, it became clear that it was not possible to find a compromise between environmental interests and the need to keep agriculture feasible.
The situation today is back where it was in 2019 with the SUD (with directive), national pesticide reduction plans, a strong demanded expectation to address sustainable use of pesticides, and voluntary initiatives launched by retailers, companies, producers and organisations that are now playing a key role. So, the question is: are we sure we need such as strict regulation when we can see that there is already a reduction due to these initiatives?
The elements for future discussions are innovation and research (technologies and solutions already available like drones and artificial intelligence (AI), emphasis on voluntary reduction schemes, a sectoral approach rather than blanket targets and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
If you missed the Dublin Plant Protection Symposium, please contact Kerona if you wish to purchase a copy of the presentations. For assistance with the Regulation of PPP in the EU and UK the Kerona Regulatory team can be contacted at info@kerona.ie