EU is failing to cut pesticide use
With binding cut targets scrapped, the European Union's pledge to halve pesticide use is stalling — even as controversial chemicals like glyphosate remain on sale
With binding cut targets scrapped, the European Union's pledge to halve pesticide use is stalling — even as controversial chemicals like glyphosate remain on sale across the bloc. Three years ago, the European Union seemed to be getting serious about pesticides. Some 40% of the bloc's citizens had expressed concern about finding them in their food and over a million people were calling for a phaseout. As a sign of the times, the European Parliament was set to vote on a binding proposal to halve pesticide use by 2030 — taking the 2015-2017 average as a baseline. "Without these changes, we risk pollinator and ecosystem collapse which will have even greater impacts on food security and food prices," Stella Kyriakides, the former EU commissioner for health and food safety, said at the time. Fast forward to 2026, and the bloc has shelved the mandatory reduction regulation for good. What's more, in an effort to remove regulatory burdens for companies, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, is now considering approving most pesticides permanently. This move to loosen controls has met with resistance from campaign groups. Manon Rouby from Pesticide Action Network International said it would undermine "the link between pesticide use and the impact it has on human health." DW has analyzed how the use, sales and impact of pesticides evolved before and after the EU dropped its binding 50% cut. Historical use and sales of pesticides in the EU The EU's efforts to curb the use of pesticides date back to at least 2009, when the union adopted the first directive promoting sustainable practices. It suggested the substances only be used as a last resort. But the results were limited. In 2020, the European Court of Auditors concluded that the policy rollout was failing to achieve reduction goals. This finding prompted the European Commission to first propose the 50% compulsory cut up for vote in 2023. Both at that time and since, the EU remains among the top 10 global pesticide users among countries with major croplands.
And that is despite a 18% drop compared to 2015 — based on estimates from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. But it's a different picture at a national level. As there is no comparable EU data on pesticide use per country, sales figures serve as a proxy. In 2024, the most recent year for which data exists, the top five purchasing countries showed an upward trend, with sales almost 10% higher than in 2023 when the reduction goal was still looming. These five countries — Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland — which are also the top EU agricultural producers, accounted for 76% of total sales in 2024. The U-turn on policy priorities "is a reflection of the EU in general being very reluctant to put restrictions to farmers in a way that comes as burdensome," said Lindsey Hendricks-Franco, environmental researcher at the German think tank Ecologic Institute. She added that non-binding targets are unlikely to reduce use. Pesticide sales up in 2024, including risky types Pesticide sales boomed in several EU countries in 2024, as compared to the 2015-2017 average baseline. They increased by about a quarter in Bulgaria and Austria, but growth was weaker in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Sales fell in 20 EU member states. Italy, the EU country with the highest reduction rate, decreased its sales by 33%. While 14% lower than in 2015, overall 2024 pesticide sales were 8% higher than the year before, when the mandatory reduction target was still under consideration. Hendricks-Franco said that though pesticide sales would probably not have fallen by 50% had the obligatory cut been adopted, they would likely have been reduced "by more than the current trend." The decline over the 2014-2024 decade was lower for a subgroup of highly hazardous pesticides, known for their potentially harmful effect on people and the environment. By 2024, the most recent reporting year, the sale of these hazardous substances had increased by 27% in total compared with the previous year — particularly driven by increased sales in Spain, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia.
The BriefWire