Discontinue use of neonicotinoids for two years. This is the request received by the European Commission to the representatives of the 27 member states meeting in Brussels, during the meeting of the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain held on 31 January. The Commission asks to stop using three active ingredients - clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid - considered to be among the main causes of the death of bees and other pollinating insects in Europe and North America.
'We are asking member states to suspend the use of these pesticides for crops that attract bees, namely corn, rapeseed, sunflower and cotton, for two years', explained the Health Commissioner's spokesman, Frederic Vincent. 'We hope that the regulation can be adopted before March', he specified, adding that the Commission hopes to implement it by July 1 at the latest. The regulation containing the ban will be proposed at the next meeting, on February 25, and, if approved, will take effect in the month of July. The proposal comes a few weeks after the publication of the EFSA study on the risks associated with the use of clothianidine, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam in seed treatment, whose scientific conclusions, although not complete, were definitive 'disturbing' by the EU Commission. Commenting on the meeting of the Standing Committee on Agrochemicals, Health Commissioner Tonio Borg, emphasized that 'the protection of the health of the bee population in Europe is of great importance not only for the agricultural sector, but also for the ecosystem and the environment as a whole. This is why - he added - in May 2012, the Commission asked EFSA to carry out a review of the scientific risk assessment on the effect of these pesticides on the decrease in the bee population.” Now - he specified - we must carefully evaluate all the political options that are available before carrying out legislative and harmonized proposals'. (Source: www. greenplanet.net)
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