Bee-Blog

Vienna, 15.5.2013: The pending European Union-prohibitions for Neonicotinoid are a step in the correct direction; however for Austria this is not sufficient. A comparison of the allotted licences for Neonicotinoid use in Austria made by GLOBAL 2000, show that in Austria, according to the official plant protection agency register, and also with the new prohibitions announced by the European Commission, that approximately only 20 percent of all Neonicotinoid applications permitted at present in Austria, will be affected.

"Large Scale agricultural economies such as vineyards, orchards as well as all winter crops were excluded from the current perspective of the EU ban.” I am afraid that the extinction of the bee will not be able to be held back alone by partial insecticide restrictions made by the EU” warns Helmut Burtscher, an environmental chemist from GLOBAL 2000.

GLOBAL 2000 analysis shows in detail, that currently in Austria there are five insecticides that are classified as being in the neonicotinoid group, and are approved as pesticides: these are imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, acetamiprid and thiacloprid. A total of 43 agricultural crops may currently be treated with one or more of these pesticides, either as seed treatment, granular treatment or spray treatment and even as a combination of all of these treatments. Overall, this result’s in 83 permitted neonicotinoid treatments that are currently available in Austria. The EU restrictions only apply to 17 of the 83 treatments of neonicotinoids in Austria. This can be explained on the one hand by understanding that the neonicotinoids, acetamiprid and thiacloprid are considered less toxic to bees and are not subject to the current EFSA assessment, and therefore were not in the Commission proposal and were not taken into account. Also the use of the neonicotinoids such as Imidacloprid, Clothianidin and Thiamethoxam, which are classified as being particularly  harmful to bees, are only restricted in 17 out of 39 forms for their possible application.

A summary table, of the current state of neonicotinoid license approvals, and treatment applications inside Austria, as well as the announced EU restrictions are available from Global 2000.

Article Global 2000