Updated
Updated · Euronews · Jul 20
French MPs Vote on 78-Article Farm Bill Reviving 2 Banned Pesticides
Updated
Updated · Euronews · Jul 20

French MPs Vote on 78-Article Farm Bill Reviving 2 Banned Pesticides

3 articles · Updated · Euronews · Jul 20

Summary

  • Monday’s National Assembly vote centers on a 78-article emergency farm bill that would, by derogation, restore acetamiprid and flupyradifurone for selected struggling sectors despite a previous backlash.
  • That pesticide clause has become the bill’s main fault line: Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu kept it intact and left Parliament to decide, even as Renaissance and Horizons figures pushed to delete acetamiprid.
  • Supporters including the RN, many right-wing and centrist MPs, and sugar beet growers say targeted reauthorization is vital for competitiveness, while Générations Futures calls it a dangerous environmental reversal.
  • The fight extends beyond pesticides, with irrigation water-storage reforms also drawing protests, including a Monday evening demonstration at Les Invalides.
  • The vote comes after recent heatwaves revived environmental concerns in France, with 32% now calling protection a priority issue, up 12 points in a La Tribune Dimanche poll.

Insights

As EU lobbies weaken pesticide rules, is France sacrificing public health for market competitiveness?
With science linking these pesticides to neurotoxicity, why is their return to French farms being considered?