European Union Seeks Tighter Pesticide Controls

Agricultural chemical companies in Europe are being buffeted by a series of initiatives to substitute—or reduce the use of—many pesticides applied in the region.

Experts representing the European Union’s member states want to investigate restricting the use of 77 pesticide active ingredients that are potentially harmful to human health and the environment. The move could affect about 20% of all pesticides licensed in Europe.

Matthew Phillips, cofounder of U.K. pesticide and biotechnology consultancy Phillips McDougall, cautions that ingredient replacement would take place only if safer alternatives exist. “Identifying safer alternatives is complex,” he says. “The likelihood is that there may be restrictions for certain applications of a product rather than outright bans.”

In a separate move, France’s agriculture minister, Stéphane Le Foll, has introduced a policy to cut pesticide use in France by 25% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. The policy, which aims to replace pesticides with agricultural methods that don’t involve use of chemicals, is being slammed by the European Crop Protection Association, an industry group. “It will be difficult to meet these targets, which are politically driven,” says Euros Jones, ECPA’s director of regulatory affairs.

Potentially the largest threat to Europe’s pesticide makers is a planned policy to control human exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs. The European Commission is currently evaluating what constitutes an EDC. Bayer, a major European agchem supplier, rejects an accusation made in the Guardian, a U.K. newspaper, that the company pressured European officials into suppressing a draft EDC system.

EU draft legislation on EDCs is not expected until 2016. “It is too early to say where we will end up with the final criteria, but this will potentially have a major impact on the market,” Jones says.

The confluence of regulations to control pesticides in Europe is a “worrying trend,” according to Bayer. “In an unpredictable regulatory climate, research-intensive companies will find it harder and harder to invest the resources necessary to develop new products,” the firm tells C&EN.