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EU governments give out dozens of exemptions on banned pesticides linked to bee decline

The use of neonicotinoids for most outdoor farming was banned to protect bee populations 
The use of neonicotinoids for most outdoor farming was banned to protect bee populations

European governments have authorised the use of banned pesticides an average of once every two weeks since they were outlawed in 2018, according to analysis by Greenpeace.

Neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used pesticide, were banned by the EU after they were linked to the decline of bees and other pollinators.

Governments are allowed to issue short-term emergency exemptions for “special or exceptional circumstances” to save a crop.

But Greenpeace has found that exemptions have been given by governments 67 times in two years, for what they say is the routine control of pests.

One authorisation was granted by Denmark to German pesticides producer Bayer to get rid of garden chafers, a type of tiny beetle, because of their economic impact on the country’s golf courses.

The Danish environment ministry said the authorisation was justified because golf courses are unattractive to bees and it was therefore low risk.

A farmer sprays pesticide on a vegetable field - ABDUL MAJEED/AFP
A farmer sprays pesticide on a vegetable field - ABDUL MAJEED/AFP

“These ‘emergency authorisations’ are supposed to be granted only under exceptional circumstances, but at the rate in which they’re being dished out, it would seem that for some countries exception has become the rule,” Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said. “On average, since they’ve been banned, permission has been granted for the use of these deadly pesticides somewhere across Europe every other week.”

Bayer told Greenpeace that the continued use of exemptions was evidence that farmers had no other options. The company has had six authorisations in its own name.

The British National Farmers Union has joined a legal challenge with Bayer to fight the ban, arguing that the EU did not do a sufficient cost-benefit analysis.

Neonicotinoids have also been linked to declines in migratory songbirds and to the collapse of aquatic ecosystems after scientists last year found they were responsible for wiping out plankton and fish in a Japanese lake in the 1990s.

Sixteen different EU countries have issued at least one authorisation since April 2018, Greenpeace found, with Belgium issuing the most at 14. It is followed by Romania, with 10 authorisations, and Poland with 9.