France’s constitutional court Thursday rejected the reintroduction of a controversial insecticide in a significant blow to the government and major farming lobbies that had supported its return.
The court’s judges ruled that allowing the use of acetamiprid, an insecticide currently banned in France, would violate the “Charter of the Environment,” a French constitutional text.
Acetamiprid’s proposed reintroduction was part of a new French law aiming to make life easier for farmers by allowing the use of some pesticides as well as by cutting red tape and easing permit approval for new breeding and water storage facilities.
The judges stressed that neonicotinoids — a class of insecticide that includes acetamiprid and that works by obstructing the nervous systems of insects — can be allowed in exceptional situations but only for a limited time and for well-defined crops. These conditions were not respected in the text of the law, the judges found.
