Ahead of a crucial vote, the European Crop Protection Association today warned MEPs that the Environment Committee amendments have radically altered the Commission's original pesticide proposals with no understanding of their impact on the availability of fresh food in Europe.

The warning was made as MEPs prepare to consider these amendments at the Parliament's plenary session on October 23, where the main areas of concern will be the use reduction targets and the introduction of an extended list of hazard criteria for removing plant protection products from the market.

ECPA believes that these amendments do nothing to enhance public health or environmental safety, and are expected to have the opposite effect as they will result in the loss of tools which farmers need to grow fresh food which forms the basis of a healthy diet. This will inevitably lead to greater imports and price rises both of which have the unintended consequence of reducing controls on safety and access to affordable healthy food.

ECPA's director general Dr Friedhelm Schmider underlined the severity of the potential impact: "At a time when the EU has recognised the constraints on production in global agriculture by relaxing set-a-side rules, the Environment Committee amendments will prevent farmers from using what they need to grow our food."

"Outsourcing food production to other parts of the world is not an acceptable option. We must maintain our consumer health standards, which are the highest in the world, while allowing our farmers to be competitive. Agriculture needs plant protection products to continue to produce fresh fruits and vegetables and other raw materials that are processed into high value food which consumers buy everyday at a price they can afford."

"Without the use of safe plant protection products a 30-40 per cent of the locally produced food enjoyed by millions of Europeans would be at risk - this is surely not what the voters expect from their MEPs."

"These amendments are clearly unworkable in practice because we need food. By introducing politically motivated amendments, which reflect the narrow agendas of a few organisations, are not based on sound science and pay little attention to their impact, the Environment Committee is putting the Parliament's credibility on the line."

Dr Schmider told MEPs that they should instead rely on the overwhelming evidence from independent scientists, farmers and the agri-food industry which demonstrate the safety of these technologies.

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