19 Amendments of Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ related to 2011/2108(INI)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas beekeeping and biodiversity are mutually dependent; whereas, via pollination, bee colonies provide important environmental and social public goods, thus ensuring food security and maintaining biodiversity, and, by managing their bee colonies, beekeepers perform an environmental service of paramount importance as well as safeguarding a sustainable production model in rural areas; whereas ‘bee pastures’ and diverse foraging grounds provide bees with the rich nutrition necessary to stay healthy,
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the health of individual bees and colonies is affected by numerous lethal and sub-lethal factors, many of them interconnected; whereas the limited number of marketed medicines to fight the Varroa destructor mite are in many cases no longer efficient; whereas the toxic agents in certain pesticid, particularly neurotoxic products and their synergies, changing climatic and environmental conditions, loss of plant biodiversity, land use change, mismanaged beekeeping practices and the presence of invasive species weaken colonies’ immune systems and favour opportunistic pathologies,
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas beekeepers are primarily responsible forcan contribute to and help maintain the health and well- being of their bees, though farming methods have a role to play too, and whenever possible prevention rather than use of veterinary medicines should be the main health strategy in apiaries;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls on the Commission to increase the level of support for honeybee-health- related research under the next financial framework (FP8) and to focus the research on technological developments, disease prevention and control, particularly the impact of environmental factors on bee colony immune systems, defining sustainable agricultural practices and increasing non-chemical alternatives, and the development of veterinary medical products for current EU honeybee-disease- causing agents, especially the Varroa destructor mites, Nosema ceranae endoparasites and other opportunistic diseaswhich is the main health problem affecting the European bee population and which requires a greater variety of active substances in order to combat it, given this parasite's great ability to develop resistances; calls on the Commission to rule out overlaps in the use of funds and to create new financial opportunities where needed;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to promote the setting up of appropriate national surveillance systems and to develop harmonis, in cooperation with beekeepers’ organisations, harmonised and easily applied standards at EU level to allow comparison; stresses the need for uniform identification and registration of bee hives, with annual revision and updating;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission actively to encourage a greater degree of information- sharing among Member States, laboratories, industry, farmers and beekeepers on ecotoxicological studies and other factors affecting honeybee health so as to make possible informed, independent scientific scrutiny;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide financial support for the research, development and field- testing of new bee-health medicinal products, especially for SMEs, in light of the beekeeping sector’s contribution to biodiversity and the public good in the form of pollination, taking into consideration the high cost of veterinary treatment currently borne by beekeepers by comparison with health costs in other livestock sectors;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to propose a comprehensive Animal Health Law but considers that account must be taken of the unique and specific nature of beekeeping; calls on the Commission to ensure greater harmonisation among the Member States, focusing its efforts on combating and controlling varroasis in the EU;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to work out more flexible rules for the authorisation and availability of veterinary products for honeybees, especially natural medicines of plant origin; welcomes the Commission’s proposal on the revision of the veterinary medicinal product directive but notes that the current limited availability of such products should not be used as a basis for the registration/marketing of antibiotics to treat other opportunistic pathologies in honeybee colonies, given their contraindications in terms of the quality of apicultural products;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Invites the Commission to improve risk assessment methodology for pesticides, which is independently evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority and should focus on both the individual insect and the entire colony, and to ensure freappropriate access to the ecotoxicological studies included in the authorisation dossiers;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to consider chronic, larval and sub-lethal toxicity, and in the risk assessment of pesticides and to encourage new research on substance- pathogen and substance- substance synergies in the risk assessment of pesticides; calls on the Commission to pay special attention to specific uses of pesticides, such as those of the family of the neonicotinoide family (Clothianidin, Thiacloprid, Imidacloprid, Thiamethoxam), phenyl-pyrazoles (Fipronil) and pyrethroids, or active substances such as Chlorpyrifos or Dimethoat, as these active substances in pesticides have had a proven adverse effect on bee and colony health under certain circumstances; application methods such as seed coating should also be considered;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Calls for comprehensive scientific research, based on appropriate risk assessment, on the possible replacement of active substances in pesticides that are harmful to the pollinator or to aquatic animal stockhoney bee colonies;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Commission constantly to monitor the animal health situation in source countries, to apply the strictest animal health requirements and to put in place an appropriate monitoring system for the propagation material coming from third countries, in order to avoid introducing exotic bee diseases/parasites such as Aethina tumida beetles and Tropilaelaps mites into the EU; calls on the Commission and Member States, with a view to greater transparency, to provide detailed information on the frequency, percentage, characteristics and in particular the results of checks carried out at BIPs to guarantee the safety of bee imports; asks the Commission to introduce common guidelines regarding veterinary treatment in the sector, for which cooperation with beekeepers’ organisations is of vital importance;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Calls on the Commission to include in the systemNo Action Levels (NALs) or Reference Points for Action (RPAs) ofr Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) in honey and other apicultural products for substances that may cannot be authorised for the European beekeeping sector, as well as to harmonise veterinary border controls and controls on the internal market since, in the case of honey, low-quality imports, adulteration and substitutes distort the market and exert constant pressure on prices and the final quality of the product on the EU’s internal market, and there must be a level playing field for products/producers from the EU and from third countries; notes that the MRLs must take into account residues from good veterinary practice;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Calls on the Commission to put in place or modify the annexes to Directive 2001/110/EC (Honey Directive) in order to improve the standards of EU production by establishing clear legal definitions for all apicultural products, including honey varieties, and defining the important parameters of honey quality, such as (for example proline and, saccarase content, low level of HMF or humidity,) and of adulteration (such as thfor example glycerine content, sugar isotope ratio (C13/C14), pollen spectrum and, isotope ratio, pollen consistency, aromas and sugar content of honey);
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls on the Commission to provide significantly more financial resources for, stepping up the current support for apiculture in the CAP after 2013 and guaranteeing the continued existence and improvement of the beekeeping sector, and to encourage the development of joint projects, and on the Member States to provide technical assistance for the beekeeping sector; calls for the rate of Community co-financing for national apiculture programmes (NAPs) to be increased in order to prevent budget cuts in the Member States from jeopardising the feasibility and implementation of these programmes; calls on the Commission to ensure that the system of co-financing between the Commission and the Member States is compatible with the establishment of direct aid under the first pillar of the CAP (optional implementation of the current Article 68 of the CAP) by those states that consider it necessary; calls on the Commission to consider the consultation of beekeepers by European and national authorities as obligatory during the drawing-up of apiculture programmes and of related legislation in order to ensure the effectiveness of these programmes and their timely implementation; calls on the Commission to provide a safety net or a common insurance system for apiculture in order to mitigate the impact of crisis situations on beekeepers;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29a. Calls on the Commission to clarify, in the forthcoming reform of the CAP, the support measures and aid to be assigned to the European beekeeping sector, taking account of the environmental and social public goods that honeybee colonies provide via pollination and the environmental service performed by beekeepers in managing their bee colonies;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Commission to strengthen and develop the agri-environmental measures specific to the beekeeping sector, in the spirit of the new EU Biodiversity Strategy, and on Member States to lay down agri-environmental measures geared to apiculture in their rural development programmes and to encourage farmers to engage in agri- environmental measures in order to support ‘honeybee-friendly’ grasslands on field margins, and to employ special crop rotation and variation;