The lobbyists’ goal is to convince MEPs to radically dismantle the existing EU rules on pesticide authorisation and use, rules meant to keep too toxic products off the market.
With Bayer’s CEO Bill Anderson personally attending Donald Trump’s inauguration, the German agri-giant Bayer seems to be cosying up to the new administration. Now a draft of the new US Farm Bill contains a section, reportedly “drafted with the aid of Bayer”, that would prevent state and local authorities from setting their own standards on pesticide safety warnings.
On Wednesday MEPs will vote on a proposal that would scrap any safety checks for GMOs, as well as labelling and traceability requirements. Many of these MEPs, I suspect, will scratch their heads about the implications of this deregulation proposal.
This week the pesticide reduction law will be voted on in Strasbourg. It has become severely hollowed-out by the centre-right European People’s Party, writes Brussels-lobbying watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory.
MEPs will vote this week on a supposedly historical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which accounts for over one-third of the EU’s annual budget. But as it stands, it is set to become a historical failure of catastrophic proportions.