FEATURE
the fungicide imazalil in 1997, but the next “Two-thirds of insecticides are already out The Environment Committee produced
existing ai wasn’t approved until 2000. of the European market,” agrees Schmider, a final version of the proposed revision
The last six ais in the first group were only “and we know that some crops, especially with 484 amendments, which it approved
added to Annex 1 in January 2007 and the in the Mediterranean area, no longer have for submission to the whole European
European Commission hasn’t yet begun to an insecticide solution.” This loss is being Parliament in July 2007. In many ways,
make decisions on the ais in the third and exacerbated by efforts to speed up the this version confirmed the worst fears of
fourth group. approval process, which some claim is the ECPA. It strengthened the proposal
leading to ais being excluded rather than to exclude ais based on their hazardous
This slow progress forced the European
properly assessed. properties, removed protection from data
Commission to extend the deadline for
used to renew or review approvals and took
completion of the review programme This problem will also only get worse with
out the proposal for a zonal registration
from 2003 and 2008. This means that the the proposed revision of 91/414, which
European Commission is having to start the European Parliament was due to vote
the process of renewing the approvals for on at the end of October. In an assessment
the first ais included in Annex 1, which conducted for ECPA in January 2006, the UK
expire between 2008 and 2010, while still consultancy Phillips McDougall estimated
working its way through the original review that, under the current version of the
programme. directive, the 251 ais then remaining in the
first three groups will be reduced to 114,
as manufacturers decide that the cost of
supporting the ai is no longer justified. Under
the revised version, however, the 251 ais will
be reduced to just 71, because the costs of
supporting an ai will be greater.
Two-thirds of insecticides are
Most of the proposed revisions to 91/414
are aimed at shifting the trade-off towards
already out of the European
the safety side, and are supported by
market, and we know that
environmental groups but heavily criticised
some crops, especially in the
by the crop protection industry. They include
implementing a scheme to ban ais based
Mediterranean area, no longer
on hazard criteria, which means that if an ai
have an insecticide solution
exceeds just one hazard cut-off value then
it would be excluded, and removing any
protection for new data generated for the
review of existing ais and products.
The industry is happier with other proposed
revisions, such as approving pesticide
products for geographical zones rather
It has also proved highly expensive for
than individual countries and introducing
companies to support ais through the
measures to speed up the approval process.
review process, with the cost of producing
However, they are dead against the related
all the required data put at around US$2
proposal to remove the current three-year
million for an ai such as glyphosate. As
provisional approval for new ais, which the
such, many companies have decided not
Commission argues will not be required if the
to support smaller ais (with annual sales
approval process speeds up.
under around €20 million), which has
ECPA has been lobbying hard to put across
already led to the approvals for hundreds
the industry’s opinions on the revisions and
of ais being withdrawn. In July 2003, the
its predictions for the dire consequences
Commission withdrew the registrations for
of the loss of more ais, but it is just one
225 unsupported ais from the third group,
of numerous organisations that have
while a further 106 ais had their registrations
commented on the proposals. Furthermore,
withdrawn in March 2004.
the proposals have also been reviewed
Hans Mattaar, European regulatory strategy
by the European Parliament’s Agriculture,
manager for Bayer CropScience, has warned
Internal Market and Industry committees, all
that the current review programme could
of which have made suggested amendments,
end up removing 70–80 per cent of pesticide
under the aegis of its Environment
products from the European market, which
committee (which kind of indicates where
would leave many farmers and growers
the European Parliament’s sympathies lie).
without adequate protection against pests.
2 November 2007  •  www.agrow.com
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