EU votes a new ban to pesticides that harm bees

Green campaigners hail as a “major victory” a new decision of European Union countries. Indeed, EU members will ban pesticides that make bees ill. Nations like Britain, Germany and France and 15 more countries agreed to stop the outdoor use of “neonicotinoid” pesticides in EU’s soil. 

In a report signed by the European Food Safety Authority, this kind of pesticides were described as really damaging for honeybees, bumblebees and wild solitary bees, by wasting their ability to forage and form colonies.

With this ban, pesticide can now be used only in greenhouses. The new rule, according to The Daily Telegraph, received a negative vote from Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, while Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium and 5 more countries chose to abstain. 

The ban could be realized by the end of 2018, but great chemical companies may challenge the ban in the European Court of Justice.

The British Government’s environment secretary, Michael Gove, claimed last year that Uk would agree with the ban because new studies showed that pesticides’ effects on bees are «greater than previously understood». 

According to Emi Murphy, a campaigner from “Friends of the Earth”, this is a «major victory for science, common sense and our under threat bees». She said: «The evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides pose a threat to our bees is overwhelming». About Gove’s decision, she claimed: «It's great news that Michael Gove listened to the experts and backed the ban , he must now give farmers the support they need to grow food without bee-harming pesticides».

The reactions of Environment Department were revealed by a spokesman who said «We are committed to enhancing our environment for the next generation, and welcome the vote today in support of further restrictions on neonicotinoids». Then he reassured farmers, by saying that the government will work with them « to explore alternative approaches as we design a new agricultural policy outside the European Union».