The European Court of Justice makes a clear decision. Previously, an Austrian environmental organization had been denied the issuance of a decision for years.
The decision has been eagerly awaited in a procedure that has been fought by the “Pesticides Action Network” (PAN) all the way to the European Court of Justice. It is about a group of chemical-synthetic agents that are used in agriculture against insects. Specifically, it is about neonicotinoids – agents that act as neurotoxins particularly strongly on insects, including pollinators such as bees or bumblebees.
There are five such active ingredients in total. Approval for three of them was initially restricted (2013) due to their toxicity to bees, among other things, and then banned six years later. A fourth (with much lower toxicity) has now been banned due to the danger to humans.
Nevertheless, the banned ones were still used, especially since this is possible for a maximum of 120 days via an “emergency approval”. The admits the relevant EU– right, “if such a measure proves to be necessary in view of a danger that cannot be averted otherwise”. PAN has researched that between 2019 and 2022 this instrument was used a total of 236 times in the EU, so that the prohibited substances were still used. Austria’s share is comparatively high: In this country, 20 emergency authorizations were issued in the period mentioned, exclusively for use in sugar beets.
considerations in Austria
Whether and to what extent the judgment of Austria’s highest court will be followed remains to be seen. In a first statement by the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES) to the Austria Press Agency (APA) it is said that the Commission’s first step is to deal with the consequences for the corresponding EU regulation, and only then will the BAES assess the consequences for Austria.
According to reports, the authority has received an application from sugar beet farmers for emergency approval of a neonicotinoid. If the application is granted, BAES may run the risk of infringement proceedings being started against Austria.
“With the ECJdecision, it is clear, however, that an approval of this application by the BAES authority, which reports to the Minister of Agriculture, would be clearly illegal,” says Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, biochemist at the environmental organization Global 2000. “This judgment ensures that dangerous pesticides that are used due to unacceptable effects have been banned on the environment or health cannot be kept on the market via the loophole of an ’emergency approval’.”
The Lower Austrian Farmers’ Association calls this “wishful thinking”. In the opinion of this interest group, the ECJ ruling does not apply to Austria, it is “not applicable” in this country.
As early as 2019, Global 2000 had submitted an application to the BAES under the Environmental Information Act in order to get the decision for an emergency approval and subsequently to fight it. However, the Federal Office dismissed the environmental organization. The procedure dragged on and was automatically terminated because the period of validity of the notice expired after 120 days – without a notice, no insight or complaint. It was only at a second attempt in autumn 2021 that the content was dealt with – and the realization that the decision should have been issued.
However, there was no third procedure, especially since PAN went to the authorities in Belgium with a similar case of emergency admission, received the decision without any problems and fought it in court. The court submitted the questions to the ECJ, which decided very clearly on Thursday.