The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher (LR) “put on notice” on Wednesday a lobbyist, Phyteis, representing 19 pesticide manufacturers, for having “failed in his duty of probity” in his contacts with senators, announced the Senate in a communicated. This is the first time that this procedure has been implemented in Parliament since its creation by the “Sapin II” law of December 9, 2016. The President of the Senate “puts Phyteis on notice to respect the ethical obligations to which lobbyists are subject” , according to the press release. This procedure does not entail a criminal sanction, but is made public, according to the practice of “name and shame”.
The formal notice follows a report by environmental senator Joël Labbé and four associations (Transparency International France, Friends of the Earth France, Foodwatch France and the Veblen Institute). During the examination of the Pacte bill (action plan for the growth and transformation of companies), Phyteis had contacted several senators between November 2018 and February 2019 “to be able to continue to produce, store and circulate in France pesticides banned in the European Union”. According to the lobbyist, the ban on these products threatened 2,700 direct jobs and more than 1,000 indirect jobs. The authors of the report suspected “employment blackmail”, with “a very exaggerated estimate of the number of jobs threatened”.
The investigations were entrusted to the Senate Ethics Committee, chaired by Arnaud Bazin (LR), which met on April 4 after questioning Phyteis in writing. “At the end of these investigations, it appears that Phyteis lacked rigor and caution in its contacts with the senators”, according to the press release, the lobbyist not having been able to explain his assessment of the number of jobs at risk. “Moreover, Phyteis did not consider it necessary to inform senators of the assumptions and uncertainties surrounding its assessment, which had direct consequences on the drafting of the law,” he adds.
During the examination in the Senate of the Pacte bill, amendments were adopted to remove a measure prohibiting the production, storage and circulation of certain plant protection products provided for by the Egalim law of October 30, 2018. Rewritten at the National Assembly, these amendments had finally been censored by the Constitutional Council as “legislative horseman” (unrelated to the text). The prohibition measure therefore entered into force on January 1, 2022, as provided for by the Egalim law.
