The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau asked the French Health Security Agency (ANSES) to reconsider its desire to ban the main uses of the herbicide S-metolachlor, still authorized in the European Union, a- he said Thursday at the FNSEA congress.
“I have just asked ANSES for a reassessment of its decision on S-metolachlor, because this decision is not aligned with the European timetable and it falls” without “credible alternatives”, he said. announced before the delegates of the majority agricultural union, meeting since Tuesday in Angers. “This is an extremely serious statement which undermines the independence of ANSES”, was scandalized with Agence France Presse the socialist deputy Dominique Potier. “It calls into question a 2014 law which has been a consensus for ten years and which provides that the ministries give up their prerogatives to trust ANSES”.
ANSES announced on February 15 its desire to ban the main uses of S-metolachlor, an agricultural herbicide widely used in France, whose chemical derivatives have been detected beyond the authorized limits in groundwater. “I will not be the minister who abandons strategic decisions for our food sovereignty at the sole discretion of an agency,” Marc Fesneau told farmers and union representatives.
“We must base ourselves on science to assess before deciding (…) but ANSES is not intended to decide everything, all the time, outside the European field and without ever thinking about the consequences for our sectors. “, he added.
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has been responsible since 2015 for reassessing the authorization of this herbicide. It classified it as a “suspected carcinogen” last June, and seems to be moving towards a ban, according to the NGO Générations Futures. ANSES, which has not yet issued its final decision on the herbicide, did not wish to comment on the minister’s remarks.
“I’m not questioning the work, I’m just saying that we have to change the method and therefore we will change the method,” said Marc Fesneau.
The minister “takes control of economic power in the short term”, denounced MP Potier again. “When a product is carcinogenic, it is withdrawn, it is the French doctrine and it is not up to an economic lobby to go back on it”, he added.
At the Agricultural Show at the end of February, Emmanuel Macron and then Elisabeth Borne announced a “development plan for alternatives for the most important phytosanitary products”, assuring farmers of state support after recent bans on their uses.
“We will now respect the European framework and nothing but the European framework,” assured the Prime Minister.
