Rennes (AFP)

By taking an antipesticide decree last May, the Mayor of Langouët launched a wide debate and made emulators. But justice has ruled Friday: the ban on phytosanitary products is not under the jurisdiction of a mayor.

The administrative court of Rennes announced the cancellation of the decree of May 18 taken by Daniel Cueff, which prohibited the use of synthetic pesticides within 150 m of homes in this Breton town.

To justify his decision, the judge recalled that the "Minister of Agriculture is responsible for the administrative police plant protection products" and that "the mayor of a municipality can not in any way interfere in the exercise of this policy by the enactment of a local regulation ".

"This is a blow because it is the first judgment that is rendered at the national level," said Arnaud Delomel AFP, the lawyer of the town. "Today the first reflex is the desire to appeal, because we consider that this decision is not right.We may wait until the end of October early November to see what will come out of the consultation launched by the government, "he added. Langouet has two months to appeal.

The decree of the Breton mayor has launched a vast debate on the use of pesticides near homes, sometimes leading to tensions between residents and farmers. One hundred and four communes, according to the Ragster association which supports them, have taken similar orders, including Paris, Nantes and Lille.

At the substantive hearing held on 14 October, the public rapporteur advocated the annulment and recalled the difference between legality and legitimacy. He also felt that the state was not responsible for a "proven deficiency" and stressed the absence of "imminent danger".

Asked by AFP, Daniel Cueff said "obviously disappointed in this decision because it is public health and we must not laugh with that".

- a distance of 5 or 10 meters -

"The court's judgment is of a poverty in the argument that is incredible and does not take into account what we could bring as evidence, especially the fact that the marketing authorization (AMM) of pesticides synthesis, in the opinion of ANSES (National Health Security Agency, ed), has never been the subject of analyzes of the consequences for residents, "said the mayor, who asked the application of the precautionary principle.

In an ANSES AMM monitoring committee meeting report, dated September 2018, an expert from the agency explains that "as regards the protection of persons present and residents, there is no has no specific management measures to date in marketing authorization decisions ".

In this same document, the committee, seized of a particular case, estimates "that a ray of 500 meters appears reasonable" to avoid that apple crops are contaminated by a pesticide used by a neighboring cultivator.

On June 26, the State Council partly annulled an interministerial decree regulating the use of pesticides, judging that it did not sufficiently protect the health of residents or the environment.

A new draft Ministerial Order provides for the minimum distance between dwellings and spraying areas for chemical pesticides from five to ten meters depending on the crop.

The government has promised to take into account more than 50,000 opinions gathered during the public consultation before publishing the final texts for entry into force on 1 January 2020.

In a statement on Friday, Daniel Cueff called "all NGOs committed to the protection of health and the environment to demand the repeal of MAAs already delivered inconsiderately by the ANSES and to initiate all necessary administrative, civil or criminal actions ".

"Today I am prevented from protecting my population," said Daniel Cueff. "The minister will have to take the measures that are required by the Council of State, if they are insufficient we will appeal," he said.

© 2019 AFP