Statistics on pesticides

The European Parliament adopted, by 556 votes to 8 with 10 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation concerning statistics on plant protection products.

The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Bart STAES (Greens/ALE, BE) on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

The main amendments – adopted under the co-decision procedure - are as follows :

-Members wish to specify that the Regulation establishes a framework for the production of Community statistics on the production, placing on the market and use of pesticides. The latter term is used instead of “plant protection products.” Statistics should cover: the annual amounts of plant protection products produced and placed on the market according to Annex I; the annual amounts of plant protection products used according to Annex II; and the annual amounts of biocidal products used belonging to product types 14 to 19 as defined in Annex V to Directive 98/8/EC.

-a new clause states that the statistics shall, in particular, serve the following purposes: a) implementation and evaluation of the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides; b) development of harmonised national and Community risk indicators, identification of trends in the use of plant protection products and assessment of the effectiveness of national action plans; c) recording of substance flows at the stages of production of, trade in, and use of plant protection products;

-the term ‘plant protection product’ is replaced by 'pesticides'. The latter is defined as (i) plant protection products as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive 91/414/EEC as amended; (ii) biocidal products as defined in Directive 98/8/EC belonging to product types 14–19 as defined in Annex V thereto;

-data will be collected from pesticide producers, traders and importers;

-Member States shall communicate their choice of data to the Commission, which shall approve the data collection method in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny;

- Member States shall ensure that producers of plant protection products and those responsible for placing plant protection products on the market or importing them report annually to the competent authority on: (a) the quantities in which a given active substance or a given plant protection product is produced; (b) the quantities in which a given active substance or a given plant protection product is supplied to processing firms or wholesalers in the EU; (c) the quantities in which a given active substance or a given plant protection product is exported. This information shall be assessed by the competent authorities and, where appropriate after editing to preserve the confidentiality of certain information, published;

-Member States shall ensure that the data collected are used for an adequate evaluation by the competent national authorities and their existing advisory bodies with regard to the aims of the respective national action plans as referred to in the proposed Directive establishing a framework for Community action to achieve a sustainable use of pesticides. This evaluation shall be published on the Internet, taking due account of the confidential nature of sensitive business information as well as privacy obligations;

-in accordance with Regulation (EC) N° 322/97, confidential data shall be used by national authorities and by the Community authority exclusively for the purposes of the Regulation;

-adaptation of the list of substances needs to take place on a regular basis and in light of the ongoing consideration of active substances;

-the Commission’s report shall evaluate in particular the quality and comparability of data transmitted, the burden on agricultural holdings, horticultural holdings and other businesses and the usefulness of these statistics in the context of the Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides, in particular with regard to the objectives set out in the text. It shall, if appropriate, contain proposals designed to further improve data quality and reduce the burden on agricultural holdings and other businesses;

-lastly, an amendment in the Annex states that statistics shall cover the agricultural, horticultural and professional non‑agricultural use of plant protection products, such as use in communal green areas, road or railway maintenance, in each Member State.