Yesterday, 28 May 2020, the Environment Committee debated and voted an objection to renewing the approval for the pesticide pyriproxyfen.
The objection was tabled by Joëlle Mélin (ID). The challenge was to an implementing act.
The motion was supported by the ID and GUE. The other groups objected.
Mélin’s framing of the objection is interesting. The essential keywords of ‘prevention’, ‘precautionary principle’, ‘doctor’, ‘ pollinator decline’, ‘bees’, ‘endocrine disruption’, and ‘exposure to pesticides for human from food’, were used.
It seemed that most of the Commission’s reservations against the objection were taken up by MEPs before the Commission got to speak.
The Commission, as usual, were clear that they acted in reliance on the EFSA opinion. This is not a given for the Commission.
The vote was: 12 in favour, 51 against, 11 objections (see link).
Obsersvations
The vote highlights that objections tabled by one political group in the environment committee have little chance of success.
The cordon-sanitaire against the far right is alive.
draftmotion28may2020ENVI:9:03032