The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed of the European Commission will decide on Monday whether the crop protection agent mancozeb will continue to be allowed in EU agriculture.
The experts and specialists will deliberate over two days on a proposal from the European Parliament to completely withdraw the European approval of the fungicide. The European Commission wants (as it has in recent years) to extend the approval of the fungicide for one year until 2021.
The advice of the experts from the Standing Committee could be decisive for the European Commission. So far, the European Commission has been reluctant to take sides in the division within the EU on this issue. In the European Parliament there is a majority in favor of such a ban, but not among the governments of the 27 EU countries.
Promotion
Until now, the European Commission has not forced the governments to hold a vote and has opted for the 'automatic pilot' of temporarily extending the license. If the experts now side with the majority of the parliament and the majority of the EU governments, the European Commission can no longer ignore such advice 'with good conscience.'
Within the European Commission, work is already underway on a ban of the pesticide. Animal testing has shown that mancozeb has hormone-disrupting properties and causes neurological abnormalities, such as Parkinson's disease. Research shows that Parkinson's disease occurs more frequently in rural areas. The Dutch manufacturer disputes this.
Meanwhile, manufacturers of the pesticide are trying to prevent a ban through a powerful lobby. Both the industry and the agricultural sector would be heavily affected if products containing the active substance mancozeb were to disappear. Mancozeb is by far the most used product in the Netherlands against fungi and bacteria—1.4 million kilos in 2016. It is applied in the cultivation of potatoes, tulips, onions, and lilies, among others.
The EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA) warned in 2018 that mancozeb demonstrably causes damage to the reproductive system. For this reason, many EU countries, including the Netherlands, oppose extending the market authorization for mancozeb, but so far to no avail.