The Agriculture and Fisheries Council reached political agreement on 23 June on a compromise text of the Slovenian presidency for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products (i.e. agricultural pesticides) on the market. The regulation would include a positive list of active substances approved for use in plant protection products in member states. We expect the text to be adopted as the common position of the Council and communicated to the European Parliament for its second reading in the autumn.
The Pesticides Safety Directorate recently published an assessment of the potential impact of these proposals on 286 active substances. It concludes that up to 15 per cent. of those substances could be withdrawn under the Commission’s original proposals, which have been largely reflected in the presidency’s compromise text, and up to 85 per cent. if amendments proposed by the Parliament in its first reading report were adopted.
A copy of the assessment has been placed in the Library of the House.