The agenda for the EU Agriculture Council (10-12 December) shows that Spain will only present a progress report and will no longer push for the formulation of a common position. Until recently, Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas kept open how he would handle this controversial dossier.
The Spanish presidency of the EU Council justifies its decision not to adopt a common position on the SUR with the ongoing disagreements between EU member states. A major stumbling block is the mandatory reduction per country.
EU member states (such as the Netherlands) that have already significantly reduced average use in kilos in recent years are unwilling to further halve their reduced usage now. For countries that have hardly made any reductions in recent years, halving could mean making a large leap to the level of the frontrunners. Those countries say that their halving in kilos is much greater and more impactful than that of the other frontrunners.
The EU presidency Spain states that the kilo criterion was already introduced in 2009, and that it does not want to reopen that former discussion.
Most countries do want a target at the EU level, but no obligation at the national level. According to outgoing Agriculture Minister Piet Adema, this risks resulting in no actual reduction in chemical use. He calls the looming deadlock of the SUR dossier a disappointing outcome.
Thus, following last month’s rejection by the European Parliament, negotiations over halving chemicals in agriculture and horticulture are postponed to the Belgian presidency in the first half of 2024. Since the European election campaign ramps up during that period, no breakthroughs are expected then.
Also, in the subsequent half-year under the Hungarian EU presidency, no progress on major dossiers is expected as preparations for appointing a new European Commission will already be underway. Only a new or amended Commission proposal could keep the current dossier "alive."
As such, the SUR pesticide ban becomes yet another component of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork plans, presented in late 2020, that is being postponed. The same thing happened this week with three of the four animal welfare plans by Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, and with the scaled-down Nature plans by Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius.