The Court of Justice of the European Union had deemed illegal the derogations granted for the use of prohibited pesticides. A decision “powerful enough not to instabilize the system even more,” admitted the Minister of Agriculture.
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France will respect the judgment of the European Union Court of Justice, rendered on Thursday. The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau declared Monday, January 23, that there would be no more derogation for the use of these insecticides on the seeds of beet.
“I have no intention of walking farmers and in particular those who are worried,” said the minister during a press point in Paris. The government will therefore not propose a “third year of derogation on the coating of beets of beets, it is finished for this element, the decision of the court of justice (European) is powerful enough not to instacate even more the system “.
The CJEU judgment considered illegal derogations granted to prohibited pesticides, when they are applied to preventive seed treatment – as is the case for neonicotinoids on beet.
In France, the government had made public, on January 3, a project of decree again authorizing for the 2023 campaign the use of seeds of sugar beets treated with neonicotinoids, harmful insecticides for bees and arousing the opposition of environmental defenders.
At the end of 2020, the Parliament had authorized the temporary return of these insecticides, which contribute to the massive decline of bee colonies and prohibited since 2018, to fly to the aid of the beet sector whose yields had been drastically reduced by the jaundice . The law specified that derogations could only be granted until July 2023, for the seeds of sugar beet.