Several associations are dissatisfied with the new charters which regulate the local use of pesticides. Considering that they are not able to protect the populations, these NGOs will attack them, Generations Futures announced on Thursday. “We are not satisfied with both the way things are going and the content,” said Nadine Lauverjat, general delegate of the association, during a press conference presenting an inventory. so-called “good neighbour” pesticide charters.
“We will continue to take legal action as long as necessary and it will start on September 20 with new appeals on the first charters”, she announced, claiming the support in particular of the UFC-Que Choisir and the Collective victims of pesticides in the West. In July 2021, the Council of State asked the government to strengthen the regulations governing the spreading of pesticides, which must already respect a minimum distance from homes.
Future Generations calls for a public consultation
The “charters of commitments to use” must in particular provide for prior information upstream of the use of pesticides and these revised charters be subject to public consultation by the prefect, decided the high administrative court. Following this decision, the charters had to be supplemented to take account of the new regulations.
New draft charters were thus put out for consultation this summer to be normally approved before July 22, six months after the decree setting the decision of the Council of State to music. In its inventory, Future Generations notes that all the new charters have not been the subject of a public consultation since “only 74 departments are concerned”.
Texts “too weak” to protect the inhabitants
The association then identified only 49 validated by the prefect. Basically, “do they comply with the new requirements? We consider that not”, insisted Nadine Lauverjat, in reference to the request of the Council of State for prior information of the residents and protective measures for the people working near a zone of use of pesticides.
“We have constantly denounced the fact that the national regulatory texts are too weak today to be sufficiently protective, in particular vis-à-vis local residents”, continued Nadine Lauverjat. “The weakness of what is in the charters is consistent with the fact that it is the users [de pesticides] which drive the documents”, she judged.