The new German agriculture minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) rejects the moderate crop protection policy of his predecessor Julia Klöckner (CDU). He thinks that checking the use of chemical pesticides once every five years is not enough, but wants that once a year. In addition, German farmers must keep a complete administration of this.
In Brussels, Ozdemir and his Austrian counterpart Elisabeth Kostinger will now argue in the EU-LNV council next Monday for regular registration of the application of pesticides.
Together with Austria, Germany already voted in Brussels last month against the five-year transfer of plant protection products from the administration. “We are arguing 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 in the course of the upcoming negotiations," a spokeswoman for the German ministry told TopAgrar.
Data on the application of crop protection products should be reported more regularly, says Ozdemir. He thus sided with the ENVI environmental committee of the European Parliament.
The BMEL summed it up more specifically: “achieving the goals of the farm-to-fork strategy must be verifiable and measurable. The transfer of data on the use of plant protection products only every 5 years is not acceptable. Germany will therefore vote against the current draft," the BMEL reported.
It currently concerns the reform of the EU rules for agricultural statistics. Trilogue negotiations on this between the three EU institutions, (Council, Parliament and Commission), will start this month. According to the German ministry, French LNV minister Julien Normandie wants the new statistical rules to be adopted in the first half of 2022.