Czech Presidency successfully concludes negotiations on the “Pesticides Package”
EU Member States will be able to monitor risks related to the use of pesticides more easily, thanks to an agreement on pesticide statistics between by the EU Council and the European Parliament brokered by the Presidency.
The Czech Presidency has brought to an end a period of more than two years of difficult negotiations, thus taking the final step towards the completion of the “Pesticides Package”. This package contains, besides the regulation on statistics, two other legislative proposals negotiated last year under the French Presidency. The Czech Presidency finalized its negotiations with the European Parliament on 24 March in Strasbourg. The MEPs should vote on the compromise proposal at the plenary session on 21 April. The proposal should then be rubber-stamped by EU ministers.
Thanks to the compromise text, authorities and enterprises in the EU will be able to use systematic statistics concerning the use of certain pesticides and their placing on the market. Compared to the original proposal, though, the final text removes unnecessary administrative burdens, in line with the Czech Presidency’s priorities. “We have managed to take the utmost account of the request to simplify EU legislation”, says Jana Reinišová, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union, who was in charge of negotiating the agreement between the Member States and the European Parliament.
The aim of the proposal is to monitor proper risk indicators related to pesticides usage. Based on the monitoring results, the Member States will collect comparable data for the development of harmonised statistics. The current regulation only concerns plant protection products falling under pesticides, but may be extended in the future to cover more areas.
Additional information:
The “Pesticides Package” contains three legislative proposals: the Regulation concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market; the Directive relating to the sustainable use of pesticides and the Regulation on pesticide statistics. The European Commission presented these proposals at the end of 2006. The final agreement should be confirmed by the EP’s plenary vote on 21 April 2009 and by Council decision in June 2009.
Contacts:
- Radek Honzák, Spokesman for Coreper I, Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union,
tel.: +32 2 2139 245, GSM: +32 475 734 018; e-mail: radek_honzak@mzv.cz
- Tereza Dvořáčková, Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic,
tel.: +420 221 813 063, GSM: +420 737 213 030, e-mail: tereza.dvorackova@mze.cz
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:40
