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<h1 class="headline h1"> European Top Court Upholds French Ban on
Bee-Harming Pesticides </h1>
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<div class="post-author-list">
<div class="post-author"> <a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/u/deutschewelle"> </a> <a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/u/deutschewelle"
class="post-author__name">Deutsche Welle</a> </div>
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<span class="post-date">Oct. 12, 2020 11:24AM EST</span> <a
class="widget__section js-load-brick-on-click"
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/">Animals</a>
<div class="widget__head"> </div>
<div class="photo-credit"> A bee gathers pollen on thyme on a
balcony in Paris, France. <em>ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP via Getty
Images</em> </div>
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<p>The European Court of Justice on Oct. 8 found that France did not
violate EU rules when it banned certain chemicals considered
harmful to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bees">bees</a>.</p>
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<p>The legal row between the French Crop Protection Association
and France goes back to 2018, when the government banned some
pesticides belonging to the <a
href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids">neonicotinoid</a>
group.</p>
<p>The ban placed France at the forefront of a campaign against
chemicals blamed for decimating crop-pollinating bees.</p>
<p>With its ban on five neonicotinoids outdoors and in
greenhouses, France went further than the European Union, <a
href="https://www.dw.com/en/eu-court-upholds-ban-on-pesticides-threatening-bees/a-43821344"
target="_blank">which agreed to outlaw three in crop fields.</a></p>
<p>Opponents of the ban have said that it prevents farmers from
protecting their sugar beet crops, which have been decimated by
an infestation of green aphids. Sugar beet farmers argue that
neonicotinoid chemicals are the only solution to combating such
infestations.</p>
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<h3>A Ban 'Incompatible With EU Regulations'</h3>
<p>The Crop Protection Association brought the case to court,
arguing that the French decree was incompatible with an EU
regulation on the family of chemicals.</p>
<p>The French government has since rowed back on parts of the
controversial ban following pressure by beetroot growers.</p>
<p>However, on Thursday, the EU's top court ruled that France's
initial ban had satisfactorily demonstrated the need to curb a
"serious risk to human or animal health or to the environment."</p>
<p>Last week, the <a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides">pesticides</a>
were at the center of a legal battle between the French
government and the left-wing and green opposition, which accuses
President Emmanuel Macron of neglecting to fulfill his
environmental commitments.</p>
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<p>On Oct. 6, the French National Assembly approved a proposal to
give beetroot growers an exemption from the ban on the pesticides
until July 2023.</p>
<p>France is Europe's top producer of beets used to make sugar and
the sector provides 46,000 jobs.</p>
<p>Introduced in the mid-1990s, lab-synthesized neonicotinoids are
based on the chemical structure of nicotine, and attack the
central nervous system of insects.</p>
<p>They were meant to be a less harmful substitute to older
pesticides, and are now the most widely-used to treat flowering
crops. However, in recent years, bees started dying off from
"colony collapse disorder," a mysterious disease partly blamed on
the use of such chemicals.</p>
<p>Studies have since shown that neonicotinoids harm bee
reproduction and foraging, while exposure also lowers their
resistance to disease.</p>
<p>The UN has warned that nearly half of insect pollinators,
particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction. </p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory</pre>
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