New EU Pesticide Authorisation Regulation could prevent use of 20% of crop protection products

The EU Council of Ministers has formally adopted its new Pesticide Authorisation Regulation -- changing the approval process for pesticides from the current approach, which is based on assessment of risk, to the use of hazard-based "cut-off" criteria.

Chairman of the Crop Protection Association (CPA) chief executive Dominic Dyer - who led the lobbying against the controversial new legislation - warns the new rules could spell disaster for horticulture and agriculture as up to 20 per cent of currently approved crop protection products could be lost.

He also points out that the new regulation was ironically passed just as UN leaders called for a 70 per cent increase in agricultural productivity by 2050 to cope with the world's growing population.

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