Bordeaux: Pesticide residue limits for the most hazardous substances would fall to technical zero under the negotiating position the Council adopted on 30 September 2026. The stance covers the food and feed safety simplification package known as Omnibus X, which aims to cut paperwork for producers while keeping the Union’s safety standards in place.

The most striking measure targets imports and domestic produce alike. The Council wants to lower existing pesticide residue limits to technical zero for particularly hazardous pesticides, and it would widen the scope of that rule to cover substances that threaten honeybees and groundwater. To avoid needless waste, the text allows transitional provisions for products that complied with the old limits when they entered the market.

The package also rewrites the rules for plant protection products. Biocontrol substances would get a fast-track approval route, and low-risk active substances would receive approvals without a fixed end date. For other substances, the first approval would run for 15 years and later renewals for 25 years. Test data would stay protected for 13 years instead of 10, and for 15 years instead of 13 in the case of low-risk products. An EU-level database for test reports would give regulators a single place to look.

Growers in wine regions such as Bordeaux watch these details closely. Longer approvals and quicker routes for biological products could widen the toolbox that vineyards and orchards use against pests and disease, while stricter pesticide residue limits could raise the bar for imported fruit and grain that compete with their own harvests.

Biocidal products follow a similar pattern, with approval periods of 15 years at first and 25 years for renewals. On feed, the Council would remove the systematic renewal requirement for authorised additives and clarify that fermentation products made with genetically modified micro-organisms do not count as genetically modified food. The Commission would also draw up guidance on good manufacturing practice.

Ministers from the Irish presidency framed the deal as a competitiveness measure. Thomas Byrne called the package a key deliverable under the presidency’s One Europe One Market theme, and Martin Heydon said farmers need fewer unnecessary burdens so they can invest, innovate and compete.

Critics see the same text differently. Consumer and environmental groups have argued that longer approvals and open-ended permissions weaken oversight, and they will press the European Parliament to change them. The tension between lighter rules and tighter pesticide residue limits runs through the whole file.

Talks with the Parliament will begin once it adopts its own position, and the presidency wants a provisional agreement by the end of 2026. Until then, pesticide residue limits at technical zero remain a Council proposal, and farmers, importers and campaigners will argue over every clause.