Brussels confronts EU countries over pesticides and animal welfare

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EU countries are undermining Brussels’ Green Deal before it’s even begun.

The European Commission has threatened to take every EU government to court if they continue to flout the bloc’s rules on reducing the environmental impact of pesticides and securing the welfare of farm animals, according to documents obtained by POLITICO under a freedom of information request.

In 27 letters to national governments, EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides demanded that EU countries “ensure immediate and full compliance with EU requirements” linked to the Farm to Fork strategy, which aims to make the food system more sustainable by 2030 as part of the Commission’s flagship European Green Deal.

“I would like to confirm our determination to take decisive legal action in case of systematic non-compliance,” Kyriakides wrote in letters she sent to EU agriculture ministers in May, on the same day that the Commission unveiled its Farm to Fork strategy, which pegged lofty targets to reduce the risk and use of pesticides by 50 percent and revamp the EU’s animal welfare legislation.

The Commission’s stern letters suggest frustration that Brussels bears the brunt of growing public anger about the misuse of chemicals in the environment and the mistreatment of animals in intensive agriculture.

These issues are “of critical importance for our citizens,” the commissioner stated, adding that the European Parliament is “increasingly” critical of pesticide licenses being automatically renewed at EU level because of delays by national civil servants.

The letters are tailored to give each country a unique set of warnings about “non-compliances.”

Twenty-one countries are reprimanded for not reducing the routine practice of tail docking, where farmers chop off pigs’ tails to avoid the animals biting each other.

Hungary and the Czech Republic are told off for exporting livestock to Turkey in “extremely high temperatures,” while Poland is told that “there are many instances where animals suffer as a consequence” of the conditions in which it transports them.

“Hopefully the Commission will act as announced and take decisive legal action against member states that continue to simply ignore these rules,” said Anja Hazekamp, a Dutch MEP from the left-wing GUE/NGL group, who is president of the Parliament’s unofficial panel on animal welfare.

Countries’ failings on pesticides range from needing to update their national action plans to an urgent need to inspect pesticide-spraying equipment.

In total, the Commission named 82 points on which 23 EU countries are failing to meet EU pesticides standards in a directive on the sustainable use of agrichemicals, despite the fact the law dates from 2009.

“The 2009 directive is completely boycotted by the member states, notably its ministries of agriculture,” wrote Hans Muilerman, chemicals coordinator for Pesticide Action Network, after seeing a selection of the letters.

Commissioner Kyriakides herself wrote in her letters that there are “serious weaknesses in the implementation of the Sustainable Use Directive.”

Meanwhile, some EU countries have already begun to push back against the Commission’s proposed target of slashing pesticide usage and risk in half by 2030.

Czech Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman warned in his response to Kyriakides’ letter, which was also released in the freedom of information request, that the reduction targets “may ultimately jeopardize the competitiveness of the European agriculture.”

“In the Czech Republic, farmers do not apply pesticides without a reason, but to eliminate pests and diseases that could affect the volume as well as the quality and safety of agricultural production and subsequently also food,” he wrote.

In its letters to EU governments, the Commission ordered nine countries, from Belgium to Poland, to make efforts to promote less pesticide-intensive farming practices, and urged eight (including Italy and Slovakia) to sufficiently train and certify their chemical-spraying farmers.

Twenty-three countries were told to step up controls ensuring farmers do not solely rely on pesticides to fight pests, but instead apply a multipronged approach known as Integrated Pest Management.

Spain, Greece, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Cyprus must do more to prevent pesticides leaching into water sources, the Commission said, while there are “serious problems” with aerial spraying in Bulgaria and Hungary.

The worst offending countries on pesticides, in terms of the number of separate warnings, are Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus.

In February, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found the EU has made “limited progress” in measuring and reducing the risks arising from pesticide use since the sustainable use of pesticides directive was adopted over a decade ago.

But the decision to send the letters may signal that the Commission wants to become more proactive on enforcing environmental legislation.

“My services will closely monitor the issue and will be in contact with your services to follow up that the necessary actions are taken,” Kyriakides wrote.

Ariel Brunner and Harriet Bradley from the environmental NGO BirdLife jointly wrote in an email: “These letters, and recent infringement packages, suggest that they are also ready to go back to their job as guardians of the treaty. So this is very encouraging but we’ll see if they have the guts to actually follow up.

“These are not letters of formal notice. So the European Commission is still not taking the legal action it should have taken years ago. But it does sound like a final warning,” they wrote.

A spokesperson for the Bulgarian representation to the EU said, in a detailed response, that the country has “taken a number of measures” to address the Commission’s letter, including updating its national action plan on pesticides, creating an ordinance on Integrated Pest Management techniques, and amending its pesticides law to clamp down on unjustified aerial spraying.

In its letter to Spain, the Commission highlighted problems from farmers needing up-to-date training on handling pesticides to there needing to be extra checks on pesticide bans in specific areas.

Agriculture Minister Luis Planas replied to the Commission in a letter shared with POLITICO dated June 9, arguing there has been an “extraordinary improvement” in meeting the deadlines of pesticide product approvals.

A Commission report published on the same day as the letters were sent in May found that “significant delays” by EU countries in approving and reassessing pesticides’ licenses mean farmers are still relying on older, potential dangerous substances.

Spain’s Planas said he was “not aware” how Brussels found evidence to support three of the five pesticide warnings but that “we take due note” nonetheless.

Madrid has been working to reduce the transfer of unfit animals to slaughterhouses, the minister wrote, batting away criticism that the approval of livestock vessels “does not adequately minimise the risks for the welfare of the animals,” by pointing to a more favorable Commission audit from 2018.

Data is not available for all 27 EU countries, however. The letters the Commission sent to France, Croatia, Portugal and Romania were redacted of the parts containing specific warnings, when received by POLITICO.

In an explanatory document accompanying the redacted letters, the Commission said it agreed to expunge key parts of these four letters at the countries’ requests because revealing their content could “be detrimental to the serenity of the ongoing discussions” between Brussels and EU capitals. It could also “constitute a source of misperception in public opinion,” the Commission wrote.

A spokesperson for the French permanent representation to the EU said: “We don’t communicate things that are being worked on,” and added that France was still preparing its response to the Commission.

Greece and Italy did not reply to requests for comment.

PAN’s Hans Muilerman was skeptical about Brussels’ appetite to take on heavyweight agricultural countries over pesticides.

“I don’t think Commission has the guts to challenge France for instance. Bad for the relations,” he wrote in an email. ” He suggested the Commission might instead punish countries such as Greece and Bulgaria to set an example if they don’t improve.

A Commission spokesperson said: “Legal obligations need to be respected, for the health of our citizens and our planet — ensuring that everyone respects them will be a priority for the Commission and we intend to work closely with member states to achieve this.”

Read all the letters sent by the Commission, and some replies, by clicking on a country’s name: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic (and Czech Republic’s reply), Denmark (and Denmark’s reply), Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (and Spain’s reply), and Sweden.

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