The Committee Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), associated with the Committee on Petitions (PETI), organise a public hearing on the European Citizens' Initiative (Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment). Statement by Benoît BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee and extracts from the Public hearing.

Brussels

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

public hearing

Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Committee on Petitions

CANFIN, Pascal (Renew, FR)

EU's beekeeping sector (T)

BITEAU, Benoît (Greens/EFA, FR)

PAZ, Ana Miranda (GUE/NGL, ES)

Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment - European Citizens’ Initiative: extracts from the public hearing and statement by Benoît BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee

Title: Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment - European Citizens&#8217; Initiative: extracts from the public hearing (EBS)

SOUNDBITE (French), Beno&icirc;t BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee, The European citizens' initiative is already a great initiative because it raises citizen expectations and society expectations and therefore put these proposals into the political debate within the European Union's public policies. So I think it's very good, from time to time, to have citizen initiatives that manage to emerge.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beno&icirc;t BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee, All studies now show that the salvation of agriculture depends on preserving biodiversity, on preserving vital resources, such as the air that we breathe, like the water that we drink every day. And so bees, which are indicators of the good state of the ecosystem, are indeed the right gateway to show that if we want to save farmers and biodiversity and the climate, we must refer to bee populations that are in very good condition and therefore reduce pesticides. Reducing synthetic fertilisers is what this idea is all about.

SOUNDBITE (French), Beno&icirc;t BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee, For example, in France, we have an area managed by the CNRS, where we have hundreds of farmers, thousands of hectares where we have significantly reduced the use of pesticides, for some even disappeared completely, while preserving agricultural productivity.

Vera JOUROVA, European Commission's vice-president for Values and Transparency, Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), Chair of ENVI Committee, Beno&icirc;t BITEAU (Greens/EFA, FR), Vice-chair of AGRI Committee and Ana MIRANDA (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-Chair of PETI Committee  (4 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), Chair of ENVI Committee, We are negotiating the regulation on pesticides. We are negotiating the natural restoration law. So for the first time, we negotiate a target which is not only to protect, but also to restore. We are also now, a few weeks after the deal we found in Montreal as a first possible impactful deal on biodiversity. And we are also in the process of changing the rules specifically for chemical products that have an impact on bees. Whether we talk about the market authorisation, the way it is assessed, or the rich regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ana MIRANDA (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-Chair of PETI Committee, The ECI is the opportunity also for ecosystem's restoration also is the voice of alarming by the laws of pollinators at European European level, because 9% of bees species are threatened, their populations are down of 37%, and up to 40% of these species could be disappear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vera JOUROVA, European Commission's vice-president for Values and Transparency, The organisers managed to successfully collect over 1 million statements of support for that initiative across the EU and reached many more thresholds in no less than 11 Member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vera JOUROVA, European Commission's vice-president for Values and Transparency, Your initiative is an important contribution to the debate about issues that concern all of us, namely, how can we secure our food production while protecting the environment and restoring its biodiversity? And how can we ensure the economic resilience of farming and enable farmers to play a key part in the transition to a more sustainable agriculture.

SOUNDBITE (English), Helmut BURTSCHER-SCHADEN, Austrian NGO Global2000, If we want to preserve the world as we know it, we have to change the way we deal with it. Reduce food waste. Switch to more plant based diet produce in a climate and biodiversity friendly way. Reducing pesticide use is a necessary prerequisite for the latter. This is the reason why Save Bees and Farmers is calling for an 80% pesticide reduction by 2030 and phase out by 2035 for the restoration of biodiversity in agriculture and for support of farmers in the necessary transition towards agro-ecology.