November 8, 2026

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November 8, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Israeli Settlement Imports Ban Splits Commission And CouncilUnlimited Pesticide Approvals Face Public Rejection In PollMethane Import Rules Delayed A Year With Review ClauseSustainable Tourism Strategy Hands Europe A Toolbox For Crowded CitiesPharma Package Heads To Parliament After Council Backs Drug ReformRussia Sanctions Alignment Pulls Nine Partners Into Arms ListingsBrazil Farm Exports Jump 14.8 Percent Under EU Mercosur Trade DealNorth Korea IT Workers Draw Joint Western Sanctions ResponseDRC Sanctions Regime Gains Arms Ban And Peacekeeper ProtectionMade With Taiwan Pitch Tests Europe’s Economic Security AppetiteGeorgia Visa-Free Regime Faces January Review After Kallas WarningTeacher Shortages Put The EU Teachers Agenda To The TestKingspan Fine And KKR Charge Put EU Merger Control To WorkMEPs Near First Vote On EU Space Act In Parliament Industry CommitteeMercosur Safeguard Rules Let EU Curb Surges In Car And Goods ImportsMontenegro And Albania Receive EU Accession Roadmaps From CommissionHelsinki Presses Washington Over Paid-For Patriot InterceptorsMeloni Letter Exposes The EU Single Voice Problem On UkraineEmissions Trading Link Defines The EU-UK Summit Agenda For 20 NovemberAddis Ababa Talks Test The EU-African Union Partnership PlanIsraeli Settlement Imports Ban Splits Commission And CouncilUnlimited Pesticide Approvals Face Public Rejection In PollMethane Import Rules Delayed A Year With Review ClauseSustainable Tourism Strategy Hands Europe A Toolbox For Crowded CitiesPharma Package Heads To Parliament After Council Backs Drug ReformRussia Sanctions Alignment Pulls Nine Partners Into Arms ListingsBrazil Farm Exports Jump 14.8 Percent Under EU Mercosur Trade DealNorth Korea IT Workers Draw Joint Western Sanctions ResponseDRC Sanctions Regime Gains Arms Ban And Peacekeeper ProtectionMade With Taiwan Pitch Tests Europe’s Economic Security AppetiteGeorgia Visa-Free Regime Faces January Review After Kallas WarningTeacher Shortages Put The EU Teachers Agenda To The TestKingspan Fine And KKR Charge Put EU Merger Control To WorkMEPs Near First Vote On EU Space Act In Parliament Industry CommitteeMercosur Safeguard Rules Let EU Curb Surges In Car And Goods ImportsMontenegro And Albania Receive EU Accession Roadmaps From CommissionHelsinki Presses Washington Over Paid-For Patriot InterceptorsMeloni Letter Exposes The EU Single Voice Problem On UkraineEmissions Trading Link Defines The EU-UK Summit Agenda For 20 NovemberAddis Ababa Talks Test The EU-African Union Partnership Plan

Unlimited Pesticide Approvals Face Public Rejection In Poll

Umar Nurmagomedov
Regulatory Correspondent, Agriculture and Food Security

Unlimited pesticide approvals have almost no public backing in the seven EU countries polled by YouGov, according to a survey published on 5 November 2026 that sits awkwardly beside the Commission’s push to simplify food and feed safety law. The poll questioned more than 7,000 people in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain, and was commissioned by the campaign group PAN Europe.

The numbers are lopsided. Between 68 percent in Spain and 80 percent in Romania of respondents said pesticides should be phased out completely. Support for unlimited pesticide approvals stood at between 4 and 6 percent in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Spain, and at 10 percent in Romania. PAN Europe said opposition to higher pesticide use cuts across the political spectrum rather than following party lines.

The poll lands on a live legislative file. The Commission’s food and feed safety simplification proposal, tabled last December, would make unlimited approvals for active substances the norm and scrap regular safety reviews. Under current rules, approvals are time-limited and substances are reassessed every 10 to 15 years. That review cycle has allowed 54 harmful substances to be banned since the pesticides regulation entered into force in 2011, a record campaigners cite when defending it.

Salomé Roynel, a policy officer at PAN Europe, argued that unlimited pesticide approvals have no public support. The group also contends that some leading MEPs want to deregulate even further than the Commission, and reporting on the poll identified Herbert Dorfmann and Michele Picaro among those keen to ease authorisation of aerial spraying.

Advocates of simplification typically argue that open-ended approvals would cut paperwork and give farmers steadier access to crop protection products. The poll does not test those arguments directly, and a survey commissioned by an advocacy group deserves the usual caution about question wording. Even so, a gap of this size between public opinion and the direction of travel in Brussels is politically hard to ignore, particularly when the proposal on unlimited pesticide approvals is presented as a technical clean-up rather than a change of principle. The European Commission frames the package as simplification, while critics say that removing regular reassessment shifts the burden of proof from industry to regulators and, in the end, to the public.

Farmers sit in the middle of this argument. They depend on a predictable set of authorised products, yet they also live closest to the residues, the water quality questions and the resistance problems that periodic reviews are meant to catch. A review cycle of 10 to 15 years is already long by scientific standards, which is why campaigners treat any move to drop it as a step in the wrong direction.

The test comes when Parliament and Council set their positions. If lawmakers keep the move towards unlimited pesticide approvals in 2026, they will be doing so against a stable majority in all seven polled countries, and farm ministers will have to explain why safety reviews that have already removed 54 substances should be scaled back.

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