the Council of State considers the exemptions granted in 2021 and 2022 illegal

These permissions should never have been granted. The Council of State rules that the exemptions granted in 2021 and 2022 in France to neonicotinoid insecticides to protect sugar beet seeds “are illegal”in a decision rendered on Wednesday, May 3. “No derogation is indeed possible if the European Commission has formally banned a pesticide”underlines the highest French administrative court in a press release, referring to the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of January 19.

Since 2018, the EU has banned the use in open fields, for all crops, of three neonicotinoids (clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid) accused of accelerating the massive decline of bee colonies. Seized by the Belgian courts after appeals against derogations taken in Belgium, the CJEU had considered that no derogation concerning seeds treated with neonicotinoids was justified, including in the exceptional circumstances invoked to protect sugar beets.

“Being right too late leaves a bitter taste”

In France, Parliament authorized the temporary return of two neonicotinoids at the end of 2020 to come to the aid of the beet industry, whose yields had been drastically reduced by jaundice, a viral disease transmitted by the green aphid. Derogations had been granted by ministerial decree on February 5, 2021 then on January 31, 2022 and the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, had said he was in favor of a new derogation for 2023. But the decision of the CJEU signed the end the use of neonicotinoids everywhere in Europe and therefore in France – where they were only used in seed coating for open-field crops.

Several agricultural unions, environmental associations and beekeepers had immediately attacked these decrees of 2021 and 2022. They had been dismissed by the Council of State, which had ruled in summary proceedings that the derogations, taken “until other solutions are found to protect crops”, complied with European law. In a decision rendered on the merits on the same decrees, the Council of State rendered the contrary decision on Wednesday, basing itself on the judgment of the CJEU.

“Being right too late leaves a bitter taste for associations because the illegal reauthorization of neonicotinoids has allowed beet growers to sow nearly 40 billion seeds and thus illegally pollute nature”reacted the applicant association Acting for the environment.