Europe plans to overhaul the way it authorises pesticides, allowing groups of countries with similar geography and climate to decide if their farmers may use specific products, the EUs health chief said on Tuesday. While rules would be tightened for more toxic pesticides, those that were seen as less hazardous to human and animal health should become easier to approve, indefinitely, EU Health and Consumer Protection Commission Markos Kyprianou said. "Pesticides and these substances are toxic: thats their purpose. It (the idea) is a combination of evaluating these substances and controlling how they re used," he told reporters.

"There would be stricter conditions for toxic products and more lenient ones for those that are more environmentally friendly," he said, referring to a proposal that is expected to win approval by the 25-strong European Commission on Wednesday. Kyprianou s plan, which aims to replace a 1991 law, will also have to secure the backing of the European Parliament. His idea is to divide the 25 countries of the European Union into three zones so pesticides can be approved for a region rather than a country. A decision would be taken within two years from the date of application by a company, Kyprianou said. At present, approvals only apply for individual countries.

"This will be done at member state level and in three zones -- northern, central and southern -- based on climatic conditions and geography. An authorisation by a member state in the zone will apply to all member states in that zone," he said. A country would be able to restrict or even ban use of a particular pesticide, even if already approved for its zone, by imposing "risk reduction" measures on farmers such as limits on the area of use or frequency of spraying. Any government that restricted use of a particular pesticide on its territory would have to justify its action to Commission authorities who might later decide to overturn it, he said.

Before a product can get approved, however, the active substance in the pesticide must first be authorised at EU level. The process starts with a company requesting approval via an EU state. The request is then checked by national and Commission experts and approval, if given, is binding across the EU-25. Kyprianou said a first approval of an active substance would be valid for 10 years but when the licence renewal was requested, provided there were no doubts raised about its safety, the authorisation would become indefinite.

In the meantime, EU criteria for allowing active substances for use in pesticides would become more stringent, meaning that some would not be approved when their licences came up for renewal, he said, declining to elaborate. "We will have a positive list of substances, but there will also be criteria where some cannot be approved," he said.
(Por Jeremy Smith, Planet Ark, 12/07/2006)