Common Sense Victory over Brussels Bureaucrats July02 |
The European Commission has
agreed to all but one of the 14 requests from the UK to continue Essential
Uses of Pesticides until the end of 2007. Bashir Khanbhai, Conservative
MEP for East of England, who has been fighting for these concessions,
welcomed this decision as a great victory over petty bureaucracy in
Brussels. Commenting on the decision,
Mr Khanbhai said: "This is great news and a huge relief for many
fruit and vegetable producers in the Eastern Region. They desperately
needed this extra time to develop alternatives for the pesticides they are
currently using. For the Vining Pea sector in particular, a core business
for vegetable processing factories, the inability to control weeds would
have been devastating. We would have suffered a loss of production, a
reduction of supplies to factories and retailers, increased cost to
consumers, reduced choice for customers, as well as serious job losses in
our Region. Mr Khanbhai added: "As
a pharmacist with experience in agri-chemicals, I appreciate the potential
health risks for consumers of pesticides and herbicides. However, I know
that the chemicals in question are effective and have a good safety
record. They are vital for our agricultural production and I could not
allow the European Commission to remove them from the Essential Users
Register without scientific reasons to support their case. "I am grateful to the
farmers and British Crop Protection Council for keeping me informed of the
ongoing developments in this case and of the potential impact of this
European Commission Review. I hope they will continue to involve me in the
future to promote and protect the interests of Eastern Region farmers and
businesses." |