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2.4. Policy context and targets
2.4.1. Context description
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) (EC, 2000) and its daughter directives on Environmental Quality Standards (EQSD) in water policy (EC, 2008), as amended in 2013 (EC, 2013b), and on groundwater (EC, 2006) set quality objectives and targets for pesticides in surface and groundwater and should protect water quality from pesticide pollution.
With the Green Deal (EC, 2019) and its associated strategies and actions, such as Farm to Fork Strategy (EC, 2020c), Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020b), Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (EC, 2020a) and Zero Pollution Action Plan (EC, 2021), there is renewed ambition to significantly reduce the use and risk of pesticides and promote the improvement of chemicals risk assessment.
European policies aimed at reducing the potential risk from pesticides are also supported by the Plants Protection Products Regulation (EC, 2009b), the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (EU, 2009) and the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU, 2012).
- The Plant Protection Products Regulation (EC, 2009b) set out rules for the authorisation of plant protection products and their marketing, use and control. Based on this Regulation, the Seventh Environment Action Programme (EC, 2013a) set the objective that, by 2020, the use of plant protection products should not have any harmful effects on human health or unacceptable influence on the environment, and that such products should be used sustainably.
- The Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (EC, 2009a)aims at reducing the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment, and promoting the use of integrated pest management and alternatives such as non-chemical approaches.
- The Biocidal Products Regulation (EC, 2012) focusses on the marketing and use of biocidal products.
2.4.2. Targets
Legislation concerning pesticides in environmental waters is primarily set by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC). For surface waters, environmental quality standards (EQS) are set in the EQS Directive (2008/105/EC), as updated by the Priority Substances Directive (2013/39/EU). EQS are based on toxicity to or via the aquatic environment. There are 33 priority substances (or groups of substances) rising to 45 in the next WFD reporting in 2022, of which there is a limited number of mostly older pesticides. Member States can also identify “River Basin Specific Pollutants” (RBSPs) for which they set the EQS. For groundwaters, the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC) as updated by 2014/80/EU, sets a common threshold of 0.1 ug/l for any individual pesticide substance.
Within actions of the Green Deal (EC, 2019), the EU set targets for the reduction of the use and risk of pesticides by 50% until 2030 in the Zero Pollution Action Plan (EC, 2021), the Farm to Fork Strategy (EC, 202c) as well as the new Biodiversity Strategy (EC, 2020a) with a focus to improve and protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
2.4.3. Related policy documents
EC, 2000, Directive (EC) 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy, OJ L 327, 22.12.2000, p. 1–73.
EC, 2006, Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration, OJ L 372, 27.12, 2006, p. 19-31., 32006L0118
EC, 2008, Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directives 82/176/EEC, 83/513/EEC, 84/156/EEC, 84/491/EEC, 86/280/EEC and amending Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 84-97.
EC, 2009a, Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides, OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 71-86.
EC, 2009b, Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC
EC, 2012, Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products
EC, 2013a, Decision No 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 ‘Living well, within the limits of our planet’
EC, 2013b, Directive 2013/39/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 August 2013 amending Directives 2000/60/EC and 2008/105/EC as regards priority substances in the field of water policy
EC, 2019, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions — The European Green Deal, COM(2019) 640 final.
EC, 2020a, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment, COM(2020) 667 final
EC, 2020b, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Bringing nature back into our lives., COM(2020)380 final
EC, 2020c, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ‘A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system’, COM(2020) 381 final.
EC, 2021, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All – EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’, COM(2021) 400 final.
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Previous comments
The reference to the recast Drinking Water Directive 2020/2184 could be added.
F2F target is to "reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides"
Comment from UBA Germany, unit pesticides:
The pesticide indicator should include both, active substances which are no longer approved in ppp and currently approved or emerging new active substances which are for sale in ppp. However, a differentiation on these two substance groups (approved and not approved) should be made to reflect consequences of non-approval. DE-UBA would welcome if the substance assignment was revised every year, to represent active substance dynamics. Furthermore, DE-UBA would welcome the feature to visualize/extract substance specific exceedances over the years e.g. within a dashboard. Perhaps for single substances the available data would allow to derive trends already.
Comment from Anja Duffek (German Member of CIS WG Chemicals):
We need to make clear that at EU level there are several processes to take actions against pollution with pesticides. Under the WFD, there are the PS list, the list of RBSP, the watch lists in order to update the PS list and further lists of national/local interest. Monitoring data are generated for different purposes with a different temporal and spatial resolution. Only for the PS and RBSP measures are taken to reduce the pollution under WFD regime. I would suggest not to merge all pesticides from these different lists (although they all may contribute the overall contamination). The EEA indicator should not duplicate risk assessment processes at EU level but could visualize the impact and effectiveness of the WFD to reduce pollution. As the indicator shall also visualize how the EU is on the track to speed up the pollution reduction (to reach the ZPA target for 2030), I would suggest to further differentiate the exceedance rate for pesticides (e.g. as stacked bars) into different sub-groups that show different needs for action:
and/or to differentiate between approved and not approved pesticides. That would help to show the need and kind for further action. One additional indicator could also count the number of pesticides not yet assessed in their risk but found in water (to indicate the need for risk assessment).
Comment from Germany, Federal State Bavaria:
Apart from an immission indicator also the emission is important. Firstly, it could be based on sales-data, but in the future data on the application of pesticides should be made available by agriculture at the small scale of fields or waterbodies.