18 Amendments of Giancarlo SCOTTÀ related to 2011/2108(INI)
Amendment 23 #
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 pesticidand 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 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas beekeepers are primarily responsible forcan help to improve and preserve the health and well-being of their bees, though farming methods have a role to play tooeven in a difficult environment,
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas, because minimal use of veterinary products and active substances is advocated, as is maintaining a healthy colony immune system but resistance problems exist; whereas active substances and medicines are not metabolised by bees and end up in honey, because European producers rely on clean, residue-free, high-quality honey, and also because of the problem of resistance, minimal use of veterinary products and active substances is advocated, as is maintaining a healthy colony immune system,
Amendment 49 #
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 Varroa destructor mites, Nosema ceranaeas they are the main pathogenic agent which requires a greater variety of active substances to combat it because of its strong resistance, and to combat endoparasites and other opportunistic diseases; calls on the Commission to rule out overlaps in the use of funds and to create new financial opportunities where needed; calls on the Commission to make research findings available to beekeepers;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to promote the setting up of appropriate national surveillance systems in close cooperation with beekeepers’ associations and to develop harmonised standards which are easy to introduce at EU level to allow comparison; stresses the need for uniform, and the annual identification and registration of bee hives;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission to set up a steering committee, together with representatives of the beekeeping sector, which will assist the Commission in establishing the annual work programme of the EU reference laboratory; deplores the fact that the first annual work programme of the EU’s reference laboratory was presented without prior consultation of stakeholders;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses the need to encourage young beekeepers to enter the sector and to support training programmes for beekeepers and farmers on disease prevention and control, botanical knowledge and the impact of pesticides, with the purpose of encouraging the acquisition of qualifications;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to propose a comprehensive Animal Health Law to be implemented in a harmonised manner throughout Europe; calls on the Commission to support European beekeeping organisations in order to establish a common guide to good beekeeping practices; calls on the Commission to adjust the scope and financing of European veterinary policy to take account of the specific characteristics of bees and beekeeping so that bee diseases can be combated more effectively thanks to the adequate availability of effective and standardised medicines in all Member States; calls on the Commission to reconsider the status of the various diseases in the light of their endemic character and takes the view that they should consequently no longer be regarded as compulsorily notifiable diseases but should be subject to appropriate health checks;
Amendment 118 #
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 medicines of plantnatural origin;, welcomes the Commission’s proposal on the revision of the veterinary medicinal product directive with particular attention for antibiotics, which should not be authorised for diseases which strike colonies when they are already debilitated, in view of their impact on the quality of beekeeping products;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Invites the Commission to improve risk assessmentthe methodology for pesticides, which should focus on both the individual insect and the entire colonyassessing the risk posed to bee colonies by plant protection products, and to ensure freappropriate access to the findings of the ecotoxicological studies included in the authorisation dossiers;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Emphasises that the European Union has only recently, with the committed involvement of the European Parliament, adopted new, stricter rules on the authorisation of plant protection products and their sustainable use, in order to ensure that they are safe for human beings and the environment; notes that these rules include additional, strict criteria relating to bee safety; calls on the Commission to keep Parliament informed about the successful implementation of the new rules;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Member States to transpose and fully implement, as soon as possible, Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides and, in particular, to promote low-pest management with the lowest possible pesticide- input and integrated pest management and, integrated pest management; addition, the training and further training of farmers in the bee-friendly use of plant protection products and cooperation between farmers and beekeepers;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to consider chronic, larval and sub-lethal toxicity, and substance-pathogen and substance- substance synergies in the risk assessment of pesticides; calls on the Commission to pay special attention to specific 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 a provelant protection products and to carry out further research into substance- pathogen and substance-substance synergies; calls on the Commission to pay special attention to specific plant protection products whose use may have an adverse effect on bee and colony health; application methods such as seed coating should also be considered;
Amendment 177 #
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, in cooperation with beekeeping organisations, to submit guidelines for the veterinary treatment of hives; calls on the Commission and Member States to increase transparency regarding the frequency, percentage, characteristics and above all the results of the security checks performed at border control posts;
Amendment 188 #
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 honeythe quality of natural honey, such as proline and saccarase content, low level of HMF or humidity, and adulteration (such as the glycerine content, sugar isotope ratio (C13/C14), pollen spectrum and aroma and sugar content of honey); calls on the Commission to ensure that monitoring of the natural properties of honey which applies to European products also applies to products from third countries;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. In the spirit of the EU’s new quality policy, calls on beekeepers, their representative organisations and commercial companies to make better use of the EU origin labelling schemes (PDO and PGI) for hive products, which could contribute to the affordability of apicultural activity, and calls on the Commission, in close cooperation with beekeeping associations, to propose quality denominations and promote the direct sale of beekeeping products on local markets;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Calls on the Commission to provide significantly more financial resources for the beekeeping sectorlace existing support programmes for the beekeeping sector on a more permanent footing and to step them up, and to encourage the development of joint projects, and on the Member States to provide technical assistance for the beekeeping sector; calls on the Commission to ensure that beekeeping organisations are compulsorily consulted during the planning of beekeeping programmes and the drafting of any legislation concerning them, so as to ensure that they are effective and are implemented rapidly; 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 206 #
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 to encourage farmers to engage in agri-environmental measurMember States to establish agri-environmental measures targeted at beekeeping in their rural development programmes in order to support ‘bee-friendly’ grasslands on field margins, and to employ special crop rotation and variation;