Europe Bans Pesticides Possibly Linked To Shrinking Bee Populations

June 17, 2013- The European Commission will enact a two-year ban on pesticides thought to be harming global bee populations, the European Union’s health commissioner recently said.

 “I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem … are protected,” Tonio Borg said in a statement from Brussels, where the commission is based.

The announcement came after representatives of the 27 E.U. member states failed for the second time to reach a binding agreement on a proposal to ban the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids. The commission had proposed the ban after the European Food Safety Authority recommended in January that use of the pesticides be restricted until scientists determined whether they contribute to die-offs in bee colonies.

 A simple majority of 15 nations backed the measure, but it failed to gain the required “qualified majority,” which takes into account the relative weight of populations. Britain, which abstained last time, opposed the measure this time. Germany, which also abstained last time, backed it. France and Poland, two of Europe’s largest farming nations, supported it. Under E.U. rules, Mr. Borg has the authority to move ahead on his own in such cases.

Global sales of the pesticides total in the billions of dollars. Two companies that make them in Europe, the German giant Bayer CropScience and Syngenta, a Swiss biochemical company, have said they were willing to finance additional research, but that current data do not justify a ban.

Bayer CropScience called the commission’s plan “a setback for technology, innovation and sustainability,” and warned of “crop yield losses, reduced food quality and loss of competitiveness for European agriculture.”

Europe’s struggle with the question of neonicotinoids and bee health is being closely watched in the US, where pesticides are in wide use, and where a bee die-off over the past winter appears to have been one of the worst ever.

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