The European Commission is considering draft regulations to ban the mostly widely used insecticides in fields across Europe in order to protect bees, according to documents obtained by The Guardian via the Pesticide Action Network Europe. A vote is expected this May; if passed the ban could take effect within months.
The proposed ban was based on information from risk assessments of the pesticides taken by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2016.
“EFSA considered evidence submitted by the pesticide manufacturers but the EC (European Commission) concluded that ‘high acute risks for bees’ had been identified for ‘most crops’ from imidacloprid and clothianidin, both made by Bayer. For thiamethoxam, made by Syngenta, the EC said the company’s evidence was ‘not sufficient to address the risks,’ says The Guardian.
In 2013, the EU implemented a ban on three popular neonicotinoid pesticides, linked to Colony Collapse Disorder, but those earlier prohibitions only applied to some crops. If approved, the new ban would cover all harvests.