260,000 citizens ask Europe to act to reduce pesticides

Over 260 thousand citizens of the European Union have signed a petition addressed to the European Commission, expressly asking the EU executive to give political priority to reducing the use of pesticides.The petition, the result of a growing movement in favor of environmental sustainability, was supported by numerous environmental organizations and associations active in the sector of environmental protection and agriculture, but also by many public health experts and biologists.There are three fundamental objectives at the center of the instance:reintroducing pesticide reduction into EU policy, reinstating ambitious targets for sustainable food production systems and protecting public health and the environment.The fight against the massive use of pesticides is therefore reinvigorated, an increasingly crucial aspect for the protection of the ecosystem and public health, put at risk by an intensive agricultural model considered, on a large scale, no longer sustainable in the long term.

Specifically, the petition was promoted from the environmental activist platforms Ekō and WeMove, with which he collaborated with the Pesticide Action Network Europe network.The organizations and signatories of the petition have urged the Commission to ensure that pesticide reduction is still central to European legislative strategies, highlighting how the EU body has evaded the topic in his recent communications and mission letters to the commissioners-designate.We are therefore asked to renew a real and organic commitment towards ambitious objectives, in particular in the promotion of sustainable food systems and the protection of environmental health.The underwriters also highlighted how the reduction of pesticides is fundamental not only for the protection of biodiversity, but also for human health.Prolonged exposure to pesticides is in fact associated with numerous health risks, including endocrine disorders, chronic diseases and neurological development alterations, especially in children.Furthermore, pesticides contribute to the decline of populations of pollinating insects, such as bees, whose role is essential for agricultural production and the maintenance of ecosystems.The petition therefore calls for the introduction of stricter regulations to protect human health, biodiversity and the integrity of ecosystems across the continent.«We call on EU politicians to act quickly to reduce the toxic cocktail of pesticides: farmers, their families and their neighbors are the first victims – declared Natalija Svrtan for Pan Europe, an organization at the forefront in the fight against pesticides in agriculture -.It can cause tumors and neurological disorders and harm the development of children.It also leads to loss of biodiversity, soil degradation and contamination of water sources."

A year ago, the Environment Committee of the European Parliament approved a 65% reduction in the use of the most dangerous pesticides by 2030, with cutting the use and risk of all synthetic chemical pesticides by at least 50%. and the ban on the use of pesticides in sensitive areas.However, the measure was subsequently rejected by the Strasbourg Chamber.Furthermore, last February, the European Commission made a further about-face on the issue, deciding to lend a hand to farmers, protagonists of vast protests against European institutions.The President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced to the plenary of the European Chamber that she would propose to the college of commissioners the "withdrawal" of the legislative proposal on pesticides, announcing the possibility of possible subsidies to support agricultural entrepreneurs.

[by Stefano Baudino]