The new German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) rejects the moderate crop protection policy of his predecessor Julia Klöckner (CDU). He considers checking the use of chemical pesticides once every five years insufficient and wants this to take place annually. Furthermore, German farmers must keep a complete record of this.
In Brussels, Özdemir will now, together with his Austrian counterpart Elisabeth Köstinger, advocate for regular registration of pesticide use at the EU AGRI Council next Monday.
Together with Austria, Germany already voted last month in Brussels against a five-year reporting interval for pesticide usage records. “We advocate for a shorter period and have refused to grant the negotiating mandate in the Council. We have also reserved the right to include further points in our own proposal during the upcoming negotiations,” said a spokesperson from the German ministry to TopAgrar.
Ă–zdemir believes data on pesticide use should be reported more regularly. In doing so, he aligns himself with the ENVI environment committee of the European Parliament.
The BMEL summarized it more specifically: “Achieving the goals of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy must be verifiable and measurable. Transferring data on pesticide use only every 5 years is unacceptable. Germany will therefore vote against the current draft,” the BMEL reported.
This concerns the reform of EU rules for agricultural statistics. Trialogue negotiations regarding this, involving the three EU institutions (Council, Parliament, and Commission), will begin this month. According to the German ministry, French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie wants the new statistical rules adopted in the first half of 2022.