Statement of 76 organisations on the state of play of the negotiations on the revision of EU rules on pesticides statistics
The undersigned organisations express their deep concerns about the direction the negotiations within
trilogues are taking on the reform of the agriculture statistics regulation (SAIO).
We call upon the Member States to support the European Parliament’s proposals ensuring precise data on the use of pesticides are collected and published without further delay.
To ensure that European agriculture shifts away from pesticide intensive practices, we need precise public data on what pesticides are used where, when, on which crops and in what quantities.
Such data would indeed:
- Allow to measure meaningfully the progress and identify which sectors or crops and in which regions
are facing difficulties to transition to sustainable agriculture practices; - Enable the work of independent scientists and the medical community to connect the dots between
exposure to specific pesticides or a cocktail thereof and harm to the environment and/or people; - Enable the work of the public authorities to check whether the data submitted for pesticides authorisations actually matches the reality of their use;
- Enable public authorities to list more efficiently which pesticides end up in water and must therefore
be monitored, so that they can take appropriate measures to protect, for example, residents of rural areas, and biodiversity; - Rebuild trust of EU citizens in national governments, the EU institutions, and their willingness to protect public health and the environment despite the weight of private interests such as the agrochemical lobbies.