This note analyzes the reaction of stakeholders to the April 29, 2013 decision of the European Commission to impose a continent-wide, two-year moratorium on the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides on crops that attract honey bees, except for use in greenhouses and for winter cereals. The Commission’s decision relied on a scientific report of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that pointed to a “high and acute risk” for bees due to the exposure to dust in several crops such as maize, cereals and sunflower; to residue in pollen and nectar in crops like oilseed rape and sunflower; and to guttation in maize. The Commission used its overriding privilege to impose the ban because conflicting scientific evidence had denied the proposal the necessary qualified majority at a previous expert meeting of the Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health.
