Pesticide cuts are off the table, says EU Agriculture Commissioner
The EU executive will not put a contentious plan to slash pesticide use back on the table, agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told Euronews, closing a key chapter of the Green Deal.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/02/20/pesticide-cuts-are-off-the-table-says-eu-agriculture-commissioner
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The EU executive will not put a contentious plan to slash pesticide use back on the table, agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told Euronews, closing a key chapter of the Green Deal.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/02/20/pesticide-cuts-are-off-the-table-says-eu-agriculture-commissioner
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00Cutting pesticide use by half in the EU by 2030 was a key goal of the European Green
00:07Deal, but that target, put on hold by the European Commission last year, has now been
00:11shelved indefinitely.
00:13In an interview with Euronews, EU Agriculture Commissioner Christoph Hansen confirmed that
00:18reviving this idea is no longer on the EU executives' agenda.
00:24It didn't work out and now we have no progress at all.
00:28But still it's off the table.
00:30It is off the table, exactly, so no progress at all and I believe with this process where
00:35we take the farmers on board and we take the civil society on board in the European Board
00:41on Agriculture and Food, we determine there and discuss about solutions that are applicable
00:47and effective on the ground to achieve those targets.
00:50The plan to halve pesticide use in the EU was withdrawn by the Commission one year ago
00:55following mounting opposition from right-wing parties and widespread farmer protests.
01:01At that time Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the pesticide reform
01:06would stay on the agenda with possibility of a more mature proposal.
01:10But now Hansen says any new EU initiative on pesticides will focus on trade and innovation
01:16aspects rather than on reduction targets.
01:21It is important that we encourage them rather with incentives to achieve goals rather than
01:31to say just from the top down this is the number and we exactly see what happened with
01:37those numbers when it goes to the co-legislative process.
01:40It is like a big auction, who gives more on percentage.
01:48Instead of tightening environmental standards, the Commission's new vision for agriculture
01:52and food unveiled this week prioritizes making farming a more attractive job, particularly
01:59for young generations.
02:01A clear sign that for now environmental ambitions are taking a back seat to economic and political
02:07realities.