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Verbatim report of proceedings
Wednesday, 26 March 2003 - Brussels OJ edition

Sustainable use of pesticides
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  Goodwill (PPE-DE). – Mr President, the European Parliament has produced a comic strip book, entitled Troubled Waters, to inform young people about the workings of the European Parliament. The heroine of this book is a raven-haired, stunningly good-looking Member of the European Parliament of indeterminate nationality who single-handedly takes on the evil chemical industry. Now, there has been much speculation in the European Parliament as to who might be the model for Irina Vega, with our rapporteur being the most widely mentioned.

Now, of course, Troubled Waters is not set in the real world. I am afraid that having read Kathleen Van Brempt's report, I think she has lost touch with the realities of modern agriculture. No farmer uses pesticides for fun – after all, they are expensive. Setting a reduction target at 50% is too simplistic, as we should be targeting the most toxic products, not those with a higher dose rate, as the Commissioner rightly said at the beginning. Of course, the European Union has turned its back on the new GM technology which has dramatically reduced the reliance on pesticides by our friends and allies on the other side of the Atlantic. Levies on pesticides will fall heavily on the new expensive products, which by and large cause less ecological concern than some of the older, cheaper, off-patent products. We all want to reduce our reliance on chemicals in agriculture but I regret that this report does not give us the solutions we want.

Incidentally, if Parliament is to do a sequel to Troubled Waters, maybe next time it should also feature our Commissioner.

 
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