The EU’s 27 agriculture ministers were discussing on Monday the European Commission’s proposal to halve the use of pesticides by 2030, a measure of the strategy “From farm to table“, one of the pillars of the European Green Deal.
Belgium, through the voice of David Clarinval, welcomed the initiative, but was among the countries which expressed certain reservations, in particular on the weighting factors chosen to measure the 50% reduction.
“A seeming reduction”
According to Zakia Khattabi, modifying these weightings would amount, with regard to chemical pesticides, to “changing the thermometer, which never cured the disease“. That “would automatically give Belgium an apparent reduction without there being any real progress on the ground“.
“The government agreement attests to its full support for the objectives of the European Green Deal and announces an ambitious plan to reduce pesticides. Modifying these weightings and placing as many pesticides as possible in a ‘low risk’ category would amount to improving our statistics without making progress in terms of reducing the use of these substances. This is not respecting the ambition expressed in the majority agreement, I cannot accept it“, she denounced.
