The EU institutions first reached agreement on a new law setting Europe-wide limits on pesticide content in food sold within the bloc in February 2005. The regulation is intended to address growing public concern over the health and environmental impact of the so-called plant protection products.
But a new study, published yesterday by Greenpeace Germany and Austrian NGOs Global 2000 and Friends of the Earth Austria, found that under the new regulation "almost 700 of the maximum amounts of pesticide in fruit and vegetables allowed throughout the EU are too high".
The findings have led environmental groups Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe and Dutch NGO Natuur en Milieu to lodge an appeal at the Court of First Instance in an attempt to force the Commission to review its position and to encourage it to take their views more seriously at an earlier stage of the policy process in future.
The EU executive has "failed to deliver on its obligation to set legal limits at the lowest achievable level," claimed Hans Muilerman of Natuur en Milieu. "There is also no consideration of the cumulative effects that pesticides have on human health. Legal action is now necessary to force the Commission to think again."
Meanwhile, PAN Europe coordinator Elliott Cannell questioned the mechanism by which the new limits were devised. "For each pesticide, the Commission identified the country with the worst safety limit and then sought to adopt this level as the new EU-wide standard," he said.
The Greenpeace study - which examined 170,000 pesticide limits as laid out in the Commission regulation - singles out apples, pears, grapes, tomatoes and sweet peppers among produce with a level of contamination high enough "to threaten acute and chronic damage to health, especially that of children". It estimates that over half of all food sold in the EU is contaminated by some form of pesticide.
But pesticides manufacturers say their products are all the more necessary to keep down the cost of food in the current climate of rising prices. According to the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), overly stringent EU rules on pesticides would trigger a decline in European agricultural self-sufficiency, contribute to price increases and cause job losses in the agri-food sector (EurActiv 05/02/08). What's more, the association insists that all its products respect stringent safety criteria and undergo rigorous testing.
The Commission dismissed the findings of the Greenpeace study as "based on crude, outdated and imprecise information". It said it "examines every study brought to its attention" and "will ask [European Food Safety Agency] EFSA for an opinion" if new scientific evidence emerges "showing that any of the maximum residue limits might not be safe".
PAN Europe expects the court to issue an opinion on the case in early 2009. Meanwhile, earlier this year, EU farm ministers reached a political agreement over Commission plans to ban the marketing and use of toxic pesticides within the bloc (EurActiv 24/06/08).
