Europe’s bed bug problem

5.12.2019

Question for written answer E-004241/2019
to the Commission
Rule 138
Joëlle Mélin (ID)

Europe is facing a bed bug epidemic. Health services in Paris are overwhelmed. The spokesperson of the French trade union board for pest control stated that ‘the situation is going from bad to worse’. A parasite expert from the University Hospital in Nice has confirmed that ‘since the end of the 1990s, there has been an ever-increasing prevalence of bed bugs in major cities’ and that ‘we are reaching a level that our generation has never seen before’. The infestation has been plaguing the United States for many years and has spread to all developed countries. Since bed bugs reproduce so quickly, they are very difficult to eradicate, requiring costly intervention by professional pest controllers (between EUR 350 and EUR 500).

Considering that the invasion of bedbugs on a European scale is largely caused by travel, that bedbug bites cause itching, insomnia, depression and potentially serious infections, and that this is a real public health issue that is not being taken into account by public authorities, will the Commission address this issue?