Important pesticides could be denied to farmers throughout Europe if an unworkable political deadline remains in place, the NFU has said.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been given until December 2008 to process over 300 crop protection products, but can only work at the rate of about four a month. More money would not help, as there are not enough scientists available to do the work. Products still unregistered by the deadline will not be allowed to be sold, creating a commercial disadvantage for European farmers and a potential increase in imports.

The European Parliament has proposed a traffic light system to speed up the process, placing the products into three levels of priority - red, amber and green. But the NFU believes this revised system would only be effective if the three categories had equal shares. In reality, most pesticides would be classed amber and therefore still need an EFSA approval.

NFU vice-president Paul Temple said: “The simple solution is to extend the deadline and give EFSA the time it needs to complete the job. Farmers face having their hands tied by a ridiculous situation of not being able to protect their crops if this arbitrary political deadline stays in place. It is a bureaucratic decision that has nothing to do with food or environmental safety.

“We don’t want manufacturers having to withdraw products which they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds getting onto the market simply because of a political deadline. Pesticide resistance will become an issue if farmers are forced to use one or a very small range of products.”

The NFU’s call followed a visit to EFSA’s offices in Parma, Italy.

Temple added: “We were very impressed by the independence and firmly science-based nature of EFSA. They have a significant and challenging job to cover all the required issues from 27 member states, and should not be put under pressure by needless deadlines.”