The ECR Group believes that the law proposal on pesticide reduction presented by Green MEP Sarah Wiener is unacceptable in its current form.

The draft aims to further increase the Commission proposal to more than 50 per cent reduction in pesticides and more than 80 per cent for the more hazardous pesticides by 2030. For ECR environment coordinator and shadow rapporteur Alexandr Vondra, this goes too far. “With high prices and multiple crises in Europe and around the world, now is not the time to make agricultural production more difficult. In all well-intentioned and important projects, such as increasing biodiversity, we must always be sensible about what we are doing and what side effects it will have on consumers in the given situation”, Vondra said.

Speaking in the committee debate, Vondra added:

“We all want to have more space and potential for biodiversity. But, if we want to have areas with more biodiversity and less chemicals on them, then of course that will mean dramatically lower yields for farmers, lower food quality for consumers, and that will have to be compensated for elsewhere.

“The proposal could even encourage more imports from abroad, which will also lead to further destruction of the Amazon rainforest, which we don’t want either. All of this will lead to further increases in food prices, because obviously with the war going on, there is no longer an ideal world where everyone wants to help each other.”

The ECR Group is calling for further studies and an impact assessment to ensure that lawmakers can make correct and informed decisions in the future.

“I believe this proposal needs to be changed dramatically. We need to have access to an impact assessment and real studies so that we can make the right decision. We do not want to do more harm than good”, Vondra concluded.