Bjerregaard revives plan for EU tax on pesticides tax

Date: 18/02/1999

By Chris Johnstone

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard is to relaunch discussions on the controversial idea of a European pesticide tax to deter farmers from spraying too many chemicals on their crops.

A new report drawn up by outside consultants to be circulated among Bjerregaard's staff in the next few days confirms that an EU tax is technically feasible.

But it also underlines just how difficult it would be to overcome fierce opposition from the agrochemical industry and farmers, and win over governments which are lukewarm about the idea.

The report was commissioned after national experts failed to reach a decision last May on whether harmonised value added tax payments or levies might be the best way to curb the environmental damage caused by profligate use of pesticides.

EU governments - a growing number of which already impose some form of penalty on the use of pesticides - will be asked to give an informal reaction to the report's findings on 23 March. No decision has yet been made on whether the study's findings will be made public.

Bjerregaard's staff argue that an EU pesticide tax is needed to prevent a patchwork of national measures springing up and fragmenting the single market. Most Nordic countries already have pesticide levies and Dutch, British and Belgian governments are in the process of preparing legislation.

The threat of pesticide levies was one of the factors which provoked French farmers to invade and ransack the office of Environment Minister Dominique Voynet less than two weeks ago.

Bjerregaard also faces serious opposition closer to home from the Directorate-General for agriculture (DGVI), which is traditionally hostile to measures which might hit European farmers.

However, Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, along with other colleagues, is also under pressure to prove his 'green' credentials as part of the Commission's overall commitment to promote environmentally sustainable development.

Producers question the effectiveness of taxes on pesticide use, whether or not measures are harmonised by the institution. "All the current

systems are not very environmentally efficient," said Stefan Lorenz-Meyer, economic affairs and trade director of the Brussels-based European Crop Protection Association, who argues that practical help to educate farmers about when and how to spray produce offers more hope of cutting the use of chemicals.

Although the use of pesticides has declined in the EU over the past decade, it is still a major money-spinner for big producers such as Novartis, Zeneca, Monsanto, Bayer and DuPont.