Abstract
By adopting the 2009 "pesticide package," the EU proposed a common approach to limiting the harmful effects of pesticides, promoting Integrated Pest Management, and the progressive replacement of the most dangerous pesticides with low-risk alternatives through a comprehensive but flexible framework for all EU Member States. Each EU Member State had to develop a National Action Plan that would propose measures to achieve the package’s goals. Nevertheless, the choice of actions and indicators remained to be established at the national level. A series of recent evaluations of how Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD), a central piece of the "pesticide package," was implemented showed limited success in achieving its goals. Aiming to explain these failures, we compare the National Action Plans eight EU Member States adopted after the SUD. We assess the degree to which the countries’ proposed measures and indicators would achieve the Directive’s three overarching objectives (reduce risks and impact; promote Integrated Pest Management; promote approaches and techniques to reduce reliance on pesticides). We develop the comparative analysis along three dimensions: the promotion of measures to achieve SUD’s three goals; the evolution of the pre-and post-Directive action plans of some of the old EU Member States; and the differences between old and the new EU Member States. The comparison along ten variables shows that the SUD had a minimal effect in homogenizing different states’ approaches to develop their National Action Plans to systematically treat problems, propose measures, and timetables for implementation and indicators. Given that the overall effect in generating a common EU approach to raise the sustainability of pesticide use and agriculture, in general, was still limited, as no common measures, indicators, or process to planning were identified, we discuss some suggestions to improve the situation.
Highlights
Despite the ever-increasing awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides and continuous efforts to eliminate the most damaging substances and to promote low-risk alternatives [1], the fact is that modern agriculture is, for the time being, reliant on synthetic pesticides [2]
The other two goals of Directive 2009/128/European Commission (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council of Oct 21 2009 establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides (Sustainable Use Directive or Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD)), focused on promoting alternative approaches or techniques to reduce dependency on the use of pesticides, mainly by increasing the availability and usage of lowrisk pesticides and the development of organic agriculture [5] and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) [6]
The European Commission (EC) defines IPM as the "careful consideration of all available plant protection methods and subsequent integration of appropriate measures that discourage the development of populations of harmful organisms and keep the use of plant protection products and other forms of intervention to levels that are economically and ecologically justified and reduce or minimize risks to human health and the environment." IPM implementation is essential as "integrated strategies showed a decrease in the use of both pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers; they consumed less energy and were frequently more energy efficient
Summary
Despite the ever-increasing awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides and continuous efforts to eliminate the most damaging substances and to promote low-risk alternatives [1], the fact is that modern agriculture is, for the time being, reliant on synthetic pesticides [2]. The other two goals of Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of Oct 21 2009 establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides (Sustainable Use Directive or SUD), focused on promoting alternative approaches or techniques to reduce dependency on the use of pesticides, mainly by increasing the availability and usage of lowrisk pesticides and the development of organic agriculture [5] and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) [6]. The European Commission (EC) defines IPM as the "careful consideration of all available plant protection methods and subsequent integration of appropriate measures that discourage the development of populations of harmful organisms and keep the use of plant protection products and other forms of intervention to levels that are economically and ecologically justified and reduce or minimize risks to human health and the environment." IPM implementation is essential as "integrated strategies showed a decrease in the use of both pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers; they consumed less energy and were frequently more energy efficient. Integrated systems, appeared as the best compromise in sustainability trade-offs" [7]
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