EU court uphold Bayer pesticide ban linked to killing bees
The EU's top court on Thursday upheld the bloc's ban on three Bayer insecticides linked with killing bees, preventing their use on certain crops.
Bayer launched an appeal on the original 2018 ruling, which the EU Court of Appeals dismissed. The company has recently auctioned off its pest control unit following the slew of lawsuits after its infamous glyphosate weedkiller Roundup was linked with cancer.
Read more: Bayer to sell off its €2bn pest control unit
The company inherited thousands of court cases after buying Roundup's owner Monsanto and is attempting to cut its debt, which may reportedly fetch up to a staggering €2 billion.
The 2018 ruling covers three Bayer products: imidacloprid, developed by Bayer CropScience; clothianidin, developed by Takeda Chemical Industries; and thiamethoxam, developed by Syngenta. The bloc claims these products stand to cause harm to Europe's honeybee population.
The EU Court dismissed the claim after ruling there were no legal errors in the Commission's decision to impose tighter restrictions on the substance's use.
The court ruled the Commission is “is entitled to consider that a risk to the colonies could not be ruled out scientific uncertainty at this stage as to the rate of mortality of individual bees.”
Bayer has stated it supports the 2018 ruling, and that it "stands by the safety of its products" despite them "being approved by multiple regulators." However, Bayer appears to be disappointed with the new ruling, claiming there is little scientific backing for it.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed this.
"The verdict seems to allow the Commission almost carte blanche to review existing approvals upon the slightest evidence, which need not even be new scientific data," they said in an emailed statement.
The use of neonicotinoids was restricted by the Commission in 2013, meaning they could no longer be used on plant crops such as maize. In 2018, EU countries voted to extend this ban to apply everywhere, except for greenhouses.
The Commission claims the products causes the entire plant to become toxic to bees. Many studies seem to support this conclusion, although many also point out the evidence to be conflicting.
Read more: Bayer strikes $2bn deal to resolve future Roundup lawsuits
France partially uplifted the ban for seed coatings until 2023 after suffering losses from beet yellow virus by insects that neonicotinoids can help control.
Other emergency authorisations have been granted by the EU since the 2013 ban for the use of neonicotinoids in certain situations.
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