Eighty-four deputies, overwhelmingly from the benches of the left, seized this Tuesday, November 10 the Constitutional Council on the bill authorizing the temporary return of neonicotinoids, bee killer insecticides, considering in particular that the text violated “To the constitutional requirements of preservation of the environment”.
Adopted on November 4 by Parliament after the positive vote of the Senate, the bill authorizes, by way of derogation, sugar beet growers to use until 2023 seeds treated with pesticides from the neonicotinoid family, banned since 2018.
A contested text
Very contested on the left, this text ” difficult “, according to the government’s admission, should save the industry faced with a disease that weakens the plant, leading to a significant loss of yield.
“Our appeal is not intended to reopen the parliamentary debate”, assured the deputy Delphine Batho. “We have major constitutional grievances against the bill”, added the former Minister of the Environment.
The appeal to the high court was filed by Communist and Socialist deputies, rebellious France, members of the former Ecology, Democracy and Solidarity (EDS) group, but also by eight deputies from the Libertés et Territoires group. In their sights: the insufficiency of the impact study submitted by the government with the text of the law.
“How is it possible that an impact study in 2020 does not mention the collapse in biodiversity that science says is linked to neonicotinoids?” “ asked Delphine Batho.
“The impact study is incomplete in terms of health risks and it scorns the alternatives in terms of agronomy”, notes the socialist Dominique Potier.
> Read also: Neonicotinoids. More than 150 political figures sign a platform against re-authorization
An imbalance between entrepreneurial freedom and health
Elected leftists also consider that the bill reconciles in a way “Manifestly unbalanced” entrepreneurial freedom and environmental protection, “Objective of constitutional value”, and health.
“This law is emblematic of a policy which gives the first to the liberal economy over the living”, commented the Communist Hubert Wulfranc.
Another argument put forward: the provisions of the law “Will deprive of legal guarantees the right to live in a balanced environment which respects health while ignoring the principle of non-regression”write the deputies. This “right” is enshrined in the Environmental Charter, which has had constitutional value since 2005.
> Read also: Barbara Pompili “fully assumes” the reintroduction of neonicotinoids
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