Parliament authorizes the reintroduction of Neonicotinoid insecticides for beet -
ISA HARSIN / SIPA
Save the beets at the expense of the bees.
Parliament on Wednesday authorized the temporary return of neonicotinoids, these bee-killing insecticides, to “save” the beet industry.
After the National Assembly, the right-wing majority Senate voted for the bill by 183 votes to 130. This vote is worth final adoption.
The text is denounced on the left as an “environmental retreat”.
In order to fight against beet "yellows", which affects yields, the text provides for an exemption for the use of these bee-killing insecticides until 2023, whereas they had been banned since 2018. It also validates the creation of a supervisory board and ratifies the ban on planting crops that attract bees to plots where neonicotinoids have been used, so as not to expose them.
Emergency for the sector
For the sector, which represents nearly 46,000 jobs, there is an emergency: the exemptions should indeed be effective no later than December, to give time to manufacturers to produce the seeds necessary for sowing in March.
The cause is a green aphid which transmits jaundice to beets, a disease that weakens the plant, leading to a significant loss of yield.
This temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoids divided the presidential majority at the beginning of October, at first reading, with a record of disputes among LREM deputies since the start of the five-year term: 32 votes against and 36 abstentions.
Within the majority group, 175 deputies had supported the bill.
A "difficult" text
Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie has repeatedly acknowledged that it was a “difficult” text to defend French “food sovereignty” in the face of an “exceptional situation”.
He recalled France's “resolute commitment” in favor of “agro-ecological transition”.
"We are all here in favor of stopping neonicotinoids," he said.
The rapporteur of the text in the Senate Sophie Primas (LR) also considered that this text responds to "an emergency".
For the year 2020, it evokes losses of yield estimated "between 13 and 20%" on the national territory, with in certain departments, "average losses probably beyond 40 or even 50%".
But as in the Assembly, the left bloc united to relay the opposition of beekeepers and environmental organizations.
"Alternatives were possible"
The left accuses the government of "not respecting" Parliament by reversing the 2016 vote which banned this type of pesticide from 2018. Environmental senator Joël Labbé said his conviction that "even in an emergency situation , alternatives were possible ”, defending a change in the“ agricultural model ”, based on“ peasant agriculture ”.
"This bill is a masterful defeat, it is a health and environmental defeat", criticized Angèle Préville (PS).
At the Palais Bourbon, the rebellious Mathilde Panot promised a "report" before the Court of Justice of the Republic for "deliberate endangering the lives of others".
Forbidden to plant crops that attract bees
The bill first consolidates the ban on the use of neonicotinoids.
It specifies that the exemptions can only be granted, until July 1, 2023, for sugar beet seeds, and after the opinion of a supervisory board.
"Responsible for monitoring and controlling research and the implementation of alternatives" to neonicotinoids, this new body will be made up of eight parliamentarians, as well as representatives of the industry and environmental protection associations.
In addition, on plots where neonicotinoids have been used, it will be prohibited to plant crops that attract bees so as not to expose them.
Entry into force no later than December 15
The Senate advanced the date of entry into force of the law, no later than December 15.
He also introduced an article, voted unanimously at the Luxembourg Palace, aimed at allowing the Ministers of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs to oppose the importation of foodstuffs treated with substances banned at European level.
For the rapporteur of the text to the Assembly, Grégory Besson-Moreau (LREM), this article "provides, in compliance with European law, an answer to the essential question of unfair imports".
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