Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment

 

Submission and examination

The ‘Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment’ initiative was submitted to the Commission on 7 October 2022, having gathered 1,054,973 statements of support. See press announcement.

The organisers met with the European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová and the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides on 25 November 2022. See press announcement.

A public hearing took place at the European Parliament on 24 January 2023. See recording.

The initiative was debated at the European Parliament’s plenary session on 16 March 2023. See recording.

The Commission adopted a Communication on 5 April 2023 setting out its response to the initiative ‘Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment’. See press release.

 

Answer of the European Commission

 

In its response to the ECI, the Commission welcomes the initiative and acknowledges its importance, in particular as the interlinked crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss constitute growing challenges for Europe’s agriculture and food security.

Since 2019 when the initiative started its collection of support, the Commission has been engaged in intensive work under the European Green Deal to ensure the sustainability of food systems, including on

• the EU Farm to fork and the Biodiversity strategies
• the Nature Restoration Law
• Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation
• revised EU Pollinators’ Initiative
• the revised EU common agricultural policy 2023-2027

The proposal for a regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products tabled in June 2022 sets out an ambitious path to reduce the risk and use of chemical pesticides in EU agriculture by 50% by 2030. 

The proposal for a Nature Restoration Law tabled in June 2022 combines an overarching restoration objective for the long-term recovery of nature in the EU’s land and sea areas with binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species.

In its reply, the Commission underlined that rather than proposing new legislative acts, the priority is to ensure that the proposals currently being negotiated by the co-legislators are timely adopted and then implemented, together with an effective implementation of the CAP. Over one million statements in support of this citizens’ initiative are a clear signal and encouragement that the high level of ambition of the Commission proposals should be maintained.

 

On 25 April 2023, Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius met with the organisers of 'Save bees and farmers!' to discuss the Commission’s reply to the initiative.

Updates on the Commission's proposals

Proposal for the Nature Restoration Law: following the agreement of the European Parliament on the text (on 27 February 2024), the Council of the EU adopted the regulation on 17 June 2024. It enters into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU and becomes applicable immediately. 

For up-to-date information on the Nature Restoration Law, see the dedicated Commission website.

Proposal for Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products: In view of the rejection by the European Parliament of the proposal in November 2023, and a lack of progress of the discussions in the Council, the Commission decided on 27 March 2024 to withdraw its proposal. 

For up-to-date information on the developments in the field of sustainable use of pesticides, see the dedicated Commission website.