He European Parliament gave in to farmers’ protests and this Wednesday, he vetoed the importation of food with residues of pesticides banned in the European Union. This comes after the rejection of two decisions of the European Commission which allowed a maximum residue limit for these pesticides. Thus, the European agricultural sector has won a new victory after many demonstrations and the tractors they played in earlier this year.
And the fact is that farm workers have been denouncing for some time multiple cases in which food imported from other countries into the EU, particularly from Africaarrived with pesticides banned in the Community territory.
For example, some analyses have sounded the alarm by revealing that olives and the rice from Morocco contained the chlorpyrifos pesticide in an amount of 0.067 mg/gk-ppm. It Maximum residue limit (MRL) set by the European Union is 0.01 mg/kg, so the products would contain up to almost 7 times more more substantive than the European authorities allow.
This newspaper was, however, able to gain access to a report from a prestigious private laboratory dated February 14, 2024. In it, analysts demonstrate that Moroccan beans contain 0.029 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) of Emamectin benzoate B1 aone of the pesticides which are used to treat vegetables to reduce the presence of insects in the plantations.
These levels fail to reach the Regulation of maximum residue limits of different insecticides (emamectin benzoate, spinosad, spirotetramate, etofenprox, etoxazole, flutriafol, fosmet, glyphosate and pyraclostrobin) European Commissionin force today, which sets the limit at 0.01 mg/kg in these pesticides, three times less.
Mazaly Aguilarthird vice-president of the Agricultural Commission in the European Parliament, explained that, until now, Moroccan importers “are not obliged to identify” the pesticides they use in the production of their products.
Ban on foods containing pesticides
Today, the European Parliament banned cyproconazole and spirodiclofen, present in products such as cereals, seeds, meat, liver and kidneys, or others such as benomyl, carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl in citrus fruits such as lemons, limes or mandarins.
The European Parliament has rejected the Commission’s decision on cyproconazole and spirodiclofen for 522 votes for of the objection, 127 against and 28 abstentions and 516 for, 129 against and 27 abstentions for benomyl, carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl. An absolute majority of at least 359 MEPs was needed to reject the Commission’s decisions.
The resolutions accompanying the proposal stress that agricultural products imported from third countries must meet the same standards as products produced in the EU in order to ensure a level playing field and argue that allowing maximum residue limits Higher prices for imports can also endanger the health of citizens of the countries Europe and producing countries.
The Commission will now have to withdraw its proposals and present a new draft that reduces all maximum residue levels to the limit of determination – the lowest quantity at which they can be detected – or to the default value of 0.01 mg/kg for all uses. In addition, MEPs urged the EU executive to reject any request for import tolerances.
