Why and how a neonicotinoid can be reused in France: explanations from Hérault senator Henri Cabanel

Le sénateur héraultais Henri Cabanel. Midi Libre – Michael Esdourrubailh

Le Sénat a voté pour qu’un néonicotinoïde puisse être réutilisé en France, mais à titre dérogatoire et seulement pour des filières pour lesquelles il n’existe pas de produits de substitution.

This Monday, January 27, the Senate was in turmoil. For ten hours, before adopting a bill aiming to e “remove constraints on practicing the profession of farmer” .

At the heart of… ten hours of heated exchanges between the left and the right, according to Public Sénat, the reauthorization of the use of a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, acetamiprid, for certain crops.

Substance authorized by the EU until 2033

A substance, an insecticide in fact, authorized by the European Union on a provisional basis, until 2033, the substance was in fact banned by France in 2018. With, however, an exemption granted by the Constitutional Council for sugar beet farms.

An amendment finally allowed its use to be authorized “but by exemption only, and under conditions” as explained to us by the Hérault senator Henri Cabanel, a former socialist now a member of the Rassemblement démocratique social et européen group. And also a winegrower “organic”, in Servian.

“Shared on the original version”

Who explains: “I voted for this text because it evolved enormously during the debate while I was very divided on the original version. But we found a good compromise, with this amendment, which I supported: we can therefore use acetamiprid, only by derogation and only for sectors for which there are no substitute products. This neonicotinoid was authorized in the European Union and banned in France, it was part of this overtransposition of standards that we denounce” the senator observed again héraultais.

According to who “it is therefore not at all a question of a reintroduction of a neonicotinoid. This decision seems coherent to me. We are obliged to adapt, we cannot remain on political positions, we must know how to find compromises.”