Pan Europe v. European Commission

Reference :

No description

Complaint date :

December 20, 2023

Status :

Not judged

Place of jurisdiction :

European Union, Luxembourg

Plaintiffs types :

Environmental NGOs

Plaintiffs names :

PAN Europe

Defendants :

European Commission

Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice :

No description

Case nature :

EU court

Specificities :

Annulment

Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) :

Insecticid, Abamectin

Requests :

Withdraw the decision to renew the registration of abamectin.

Name of the Court :

European Union General Court of Luxembourg, European Union

Jurisdiction level :

First instance

Summary :

In a press release of December 20, 2023, PAN Europe announced its intention to file two new complaints before the General Court. One of these is an action for the annulment of the decision to renew the use of abamectin, an insecticide which is highly toxic to human health and the environment, particularly pollinators.

Although the use of abamectin is generally prohibited in the European Union, a derogation allows its use in greenhouses, on the grounds that it is a closed environment preventing the product from drifting to untreated plots. However, PAN Europe maintains that greenhouses are not hermetically sealed systems, and do not prevent pesticide drift, of which the European authorities would be aware. Furthermore, abamectin is classified as harmful to reproduction and potentially genotoxic.

PAN Europe asks the Commission to apply the precautionary principle as defined for pesticide products in a decision of the European Court of Justice in January 2023 (C-162/21).

Scientific references :

No scientifice reference for this case.