Pesticides

Nature must be at the heart of the post-Covid-19 recovery

A blog by MEPs Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg and Grace O’Sullivan

Biodiversity is all around us. Even for those restricted to home in these trying and sad times, a cursory look around shows a world teeming with life.

EU Commission proposals must kick-start agricultural reform

Farm to Fork/Biodiversity

Today (20 May), the European Commission has just released its "Farm to Fork" and Biodiversity strategies. The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament applaud the fact that the Commission has not caved into calls to delay these strategies, and is moving forward to help tackle the loss of species and seems to be pursuing a more sustainable approach to agricultural policy.

Franco-German proposal good base for recovery, but more needed to ensure success

COVID-Recovery

The French and German governments proposed an initiative for a recovery plan for the consequences of the Corona crisis includes recovery bonds and grants for the EU countries that were hard hit by the crisis, as proposed by the European Parliament last week. However, with a planned volume of €500 billion, the plan falls short of the €2 trillion called for by the European Parliament. With regard to the climate target for 2030, the wording is vague.

Corona-crisis must not be an excuse for postponement

Farm-to-Fork/Biodiversity

A leak today (Thursday, 16th April) has revealed that the European Commission is considering postponing the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament rejects any postponement and calls for the timetable to be maintained, especially in view of the ongoing negotiations on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The COVID-19 crisis reveals the many fissures of the EU food system and shows us the way out

As COVID-19 hits the EU agri-food sector hard, it also reveals its main shortcomings. Far from shying away from the issues, we should use this occasion to reshape the EU food and farming system to the benefit of farmers, consumers and their shared environment, with the help of the future Farm to Fork strategy, and, hopefully a refounded Common Agriculture Policy.

A Greens/EFA take on the plenary week

13-17 January 2020

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included the European Green Deal, the Sustainable Investment Plan, Just Transition Fund, Roadmap on Social Europe, the Council hearings on the rule of Law in Hungary and Poland, Czech PM Andrej Babiš' conflicts of interest, Convention on biodiversity, ...

New global agreement on biodiversity needed

Biodiversity

The European Union has already set climate change high on the agenda. Now it needs to do the same with protecting biodiversity.

This week in the European Parliament

Greens/EFA priorities - plenary session 13-17 January 2020

A look ahead to the plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the Greens/EFA priority issues on the agenda

Our future : fair & healthy food

Decades of yield maximization and export-oriented monocultures in a globalising economy have broken our food and agricultural chain. Business-as-usual has become impossible. But the tide is changing. More and more cities put agroecology in practice in concrete urban food policies. It is now time for a new EU policy that reflects and supports this holistic vision.

Greens/EFA Debriefing

Plenary week, 21-24 October 2019

Greens/EFA priorities for the plenary week included the votes on the EU budget 2020, the search and sea rescue in the Mediterranean, the Turkish military operation in Northeast Syria, the public country-by-country reporting, pesticides and bees, the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania,...

European Parliament demands better protection for bees

Bee protection / pesticides

The Parliament's objection is sending a strong signal to the Commission not to bow to the pressure of Member States and the agro-chemical industry. The Parliament is demanding a new text that fully implements existing scientific guidelines. Bee populations are suffering everywhere largely due to the use of pesticides, with major consequences for our ecosystems and food supplies.

Protection of bees against harmful pesticides

The European Parliament must stop Commission's plans

The very partial implementation of the Bee Guidance Document is the latest of many comitology 'black box' scandals. Everybody claims they love bees, but the decision making process on how to really protect them is taking place in the dark and does not aim to protect them properly, based on existing scientific evidence.