Neonicotinoids, these pesticides aimed at protecting crops from massive infestations of disease-carrying aphids, have been officially banned in France and Europe since 2018. However, the French government had granted temporary exemptions on two neonicotinoids – imidacloprid and thiamethoxane – in 2021 and in 2022, for sugar beet crops. The executive then relied on the basis of a law of December 14, 2020.
In concrete terms, these derogations allowed farmers to sell their production treated with these two pesticides. Several associations of farmers, beekeepers and environmental protection then asked the Council of State to cancel these temporary authorizations, in particular in relation to the massive decline of bee colonies. This is now done, in addition to considering them as “illegal”.
Indeed, on January 19, “the Court of Justice of the European Union specified, for the first time, that when the European Commission has expressly prohibited […] the use of seeds treated with a given phytosanitary product , a member state cannot grant a temporary derogation”, allowing the treated products to be marketed, underlines the Council of State in a press release. For the time being, there is no indication whether the European Union will apply sanctions to the French state.
