From farm to fork: new rules for faster authorisation of organic pesticide

To support the EU’s transition to sustainable food systems and the reduction of the use of chemical pesticides as part of the Farm to Fork Strategy, the European Commission is adopting new rules to increase the availability and access to organic plant protection products for use in Member States’ fields.

The new rules will facilitate the authorisation of micro-organisms for use as active substances in plant protection products and offer EU farmers additional options to replace chemical plant protection products with more sustainable alternatives.

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said: “The transition to more sustainable food systems means finding alternatives to chemical pesticides that respect our planet and our health. The Commission is committed to facilitating this process by increasing the number of biological and low-risk alternatives on the market — we have already approved 20 low-risk alternatives since the beginning of our mandate. Thanks to these new rules, we will ensure that organic alternatives can reach our farmers even faster. The more we collectively invest resources in the assessment of plant protection products, the more safe alternatives we will have to deliver on our commitment to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50 % by 2030.”

The new rules will place the biological and ecological properties of each micro-organism at the heart of the scientific risk assessment process, which must demonstrate safety before micro-organisms can be approved as active substances in plant protection products. They should speed up the authorisation of biological micro-organisms and plant protection products containing them. Already approved by Member States in February 2022, the new rules will apply from November 2022.