A question mark hangs over the sustainable use of the pesticides regulation (SUR) timeline after a leaked letter showed agriculture MEPs are dragging their feet on the crucial file, leading Commission officials to accuse them of deliberately blocking progress.

The contentious but ambitious SUR proposal aims to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030, as set out in the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy.

But progress on the file has not been smooth-running, with EU agriculture ministers demanding more information before proceeding, effectively stalling negotiations on the crucial file.

Now, the chair of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee (AGRI), Norbert Lins, has said in a letter addressed to Parliament President Roberta Metsola that it, too, is prepared to give its take on the proposal once it has received the supplementary data.

In the letter, seen by EURACTIV, Lins maintains that his committee is “keen to proceed with the file” but points out that “both legislators, obviously, will not be in a position to vote on this text before having received and analysed the above additional elements”.

As the Council “does not schedule a common approach by then,” similarly, the agriculture committee would “consider irrelevant giving an opinion on the proposal when the additional impact assessment is pending,” he wrote.

The move has been lambasted by a Commission official, who told EURACTIV that they were ‘not optimistic’ about the progression of the SUR proposal due, in large part, to the conduct of the agriculture committee.

“The AGRI Committee is not moving – they are deliberately and knowingly using the tactics to delay the file,” the official, who spoke to EURACTIV on the condition of anonymity,  said, adding that they are “creat[ing] a pressure for this to be either watered down or not adopted within this mandate, or spilled over to the next mandate”.

While the official said he was reluctant to “speculate on the [AGRI] committee’s endgame,” he said all options point to a ‘dangerous delay’.

This is because the “window of opportunity in this mandate is closing very fast,” they explained, pointing out that “the door will soon shut” on the legislative processes.

Likewise, another Commission official echoed these concerns.

“The window to make these changes is closing, and it’s not sure what the political winds are going to be in two years from now,” the second official said, adding that it is “clear that there are political forces [that are] counting on different winds”.

Meanwhile, the chair of the environment committee, Pascal Canfin, slammed his agriculture counterpart’s decision in a separate letter, also addressed to President Metsola and seen by EURACTIV.

“The intention of the AGRI committee to put on hold the parliamentary work on the proposal would put at risk the conclusion of this important legislative procedure under the current term and does not reflect the principle of good cooperation among parliamentary committees,” he wrote.

Canfin also pointed out that, despite the request for more information, the Swedish Council Presidency confirmed in ENVI on 9 February that the work in Council “continues on the remainder of the proposal”.

Source: Euractiv.com