Sustainable Use Regulation - An Update
On 22nd November, the EU Parliament voted to not approve the amended text of the Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR) at its first reading.
The proposal for a regulation on the sustainable use of crop protection products was originally proposed by the Commission in June 2022, and has been under development by Rapporteur Sarah Wiener (MEP) since September of that year.
The aim of the regulation was to replace the existing Directive 2009/128/EC and set legally binding targets for reduction in product use of 50% by 2030, among other changes in use patterns which would have represented a significant change in agricultural practice across the EU. Following many amendments to the text, it was finally rejected at its first reading.
The rejection does not imply that the SUR cannot be further negotiated and modified. However, the next possible steps to progress the draft text were not clear at the press conference immediately after the vote. The consensus is that the concept of the regulation will not be further progressed until at least after the next parliamentary elections in 2024 at the earliest.