Slovenia lobbies to tone down EU pesticide plans

Faced with mounting anger from farmers, the government has launched an effort to tone down the European Commission’s proposal to halve the use of chemicals and more dangerous phytopharmaceuticals by 50% by 2030.

Last week, Slovenia’s Agriculture, Forestry and Food Ministry hosted a European Commission delegation led by Deputy Director-General for Health and Food Safety Claire Bury for talks focused on the Commission’s pesticide plans. The delegation also visited Natura 2000 protected areas, water protection areas and areas of intensive agriculture.

Ministry officials presented the situation in Slovenia and “real-life examples in the field to see and understand how Slovenia is already fulfilling numerous demands and how the draft regulation would have an exceptionally negative impact on agriculture, rural development and food safety,” the ministry said – issues the ministry said several member states, including Slovenia, had warned about when the proposal was being drafted.

The most problematic for Slovenia would be a complete ban on all phytopharmaceuticals in sensitive areas, which the government says would affect 40% of all used farmlands. Slovenian representatives have raised this issue at three bilateral meetings with the Commission so far.

The meeting came after farmers staged a huge protest against environmental restrictions at the end of March. After holding talks with the government, they said it was clear the executive did not understand their needs and thus, a new protest is scheduled for this week.

The Commission’s proposed pesticide regulation is just one of the points of contention for Slovenia’s farmers, who also want tougher measures to reduce the brown bear and wolf population and the size of Natura 2000 sites.

(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)