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EU Parliament blocks Commission plans to allow banned pesticide presence in foods

The European Parliament has blocked a proposal by the European Commission that would have permitted the presence of banned pesticide residue in a range of imported food products.

In a large majority decision, 516 MEPs voted in objection to maximum residue levels of carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl in food products such as lemons, limes, mandarins, and okra (also known as lady’s fingers), with 129 voting against and 27 abstaining.

In the same parliamentary session last month, 522 MEPs rejected the European Commission’s proposal to allow maximum cyproconazole residue levels to appear in products such as cereals, seeds, meat, liver and kidney, with 127 MEPs voting against and 28 abstaining.

“This is a victory for consumer safety, fair competition for EU farmers, and the health of workers worldwide,” said a spokesperson for the Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe, a Brussels-based organisation that works to eliminate the dependency on synthetic pesticides. “We thank the MEPs for standing firm, and we urge the European Commission to review its decision accordingly.”

The result now places the onus on the Commission to propose an updated draft reducing all maximum residue levels either to the lowest amount at which they can be detected or the default value of 0.01 mg/kg for all uses. In addition, Parliament urged the Commission to reject any applications for import tolerances that do not satisfy these strict requirements.

Non-EU foods must follow the same EU standards

In accompanying resolutions made during the plenary session, Parliament noted that the use of all these pesticides were all already banned in the EU. Further resolutions stipulated that agri-products imported from non-EU countries must follow the same standards as products produced in the EU to ensure a level playing field.

It added that allowing higher maximum residue levels for imports would, “jeopardise citizens’ health in Europe and in the producing countries.”

Christophe Clergeau, MEP and member of the Socialist Party and the Socialists and Democrats group, said: “This vote is a warning and a disavowal for the Commission, which for more than a week has been pressuring Parliament to change its position. It is also a setback for the European People's Party (EPP) group, which finds itself totally isolated within Parliament.

“The Commission and the EPP will now have to review their approach. They will have to recognise the primacy of human health protection and implement the necessary mirror clauses to protect our agriculture.”

Welcoming the Parliament’s objection to the commission’s proposals, PAN Europe said carbendazim, thiophanate-methyl, and cyproconazole could no longer be approved in the EU due to their proven harmful effects on human health, including carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, and endocrine disruption.

“In the Commission’s decision, these three pesticides were set to be permitted in specific food and feed products only to please trade partners,” the action group said. “The Parliament’s veto safeguards the EU's consumer protection standard, which is to prevent any human exposure to harmful pesticides. It also blocks a decision which would have put EU farmers in an unfair competition, while giving a green light for these very dangerous substances to be used in third countries.”

Three pesticides are all banned in the EU

Cyproconazole, which was banned in May 2021, is known to be toxic for reproduction (category 1B) and is also harmful to aquatic environments. Carbendazim has been banned in the EU since November 2014 due to its classification as a mutagenic substance (category 1B) and toxic for reproduction (category 1B). Like-wise, Thiophanate-methyl, banned in October 2020, is similarly hazardous, carrying ca number of classifications as a suspected mutagen and a suspected carcinogen (category 2).

This is not the first time the European Parliament has had to intervene in the enforcement of rules governing MRL levels in imported food.

At the start of 2024, Parliament voted against the European Commission’s proposal to allow maximum residue levels (MRLs) for the insecticide thiacloprid above a certain threshold. The Commission’s plan specifically involved reducing the MRL of thiacloprid in specific food items but allowing exceptions for around thirty imported food products. In response, 386 MEPs opposed the Commission’s proposal, while 186 supported it, endorsing the position of its Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) in the process.