“Save bees and farmers!”: One million signatures in European Citizens’ Initiative signals EU co-legislators to keep environmental ambition
2023-04-05
Today, the Commission is responding to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment”.
The Commission welcomes the initiative and acknowledges the importance of the ECI, in particular as the interlinked crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss constitute growing challenges for Europe’s agriculture and food security. In the EU, one in three bee, butterfly and hoverfly species is in decline, whereas 80% of crop and wild flowering plant species depend on animal pollination. Half of agricultural land in the EU already runs the risk of having a pollination deficit. The threat to the existence of pollinators is a threat to food security and to life on the planet.
The success of the Citizens Initiative is a clear sign of the large public support for action in favour of pollinators, biodiversity and sustainable farming. In this context, the Commission is calling on the European Parliament and the Council to find swift and ambitious agreements on the already submitted legislative proposals, that will help protect and restore European pollinators and translate the citizens’ ambition into law.
Comprehensive action for sustainability of food systems
The Commission’s European Green Deal actions to ensure the sustainability of food systems include notably: the EU Farm to fork and the Biodiversity strategies, the Nature Restoration Law, Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation, revised EU Pollinators’ Initiative ‘the New Deal for Pollinators’, as well as the new EU common agricultural policy for the period 2023-2027. Taken together, the Commission’s proposals and initiatives are a comprehensive response to the requests made in the ECI.
European Commission, 05-04-23
; https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2084