JOINT STATEMENT: Refocusing competitiveness on EU realities: the role of plant protection products in balancing EU production, imports, and exports
The debate on competitiveness in the European Union’s agri-food sector is too often framed narrowly in terms of external pressures, particularly competition from imports produced under different regulatory standards. These differences often stem from distinct phytosanitary challenges as well as divergent environmental and climate-related constraints across producing regions.
However, this single-sided view does not capture the full picture. Such framing risks overlooking an even more important factor: the EU’s internal legal policy, which fundamentally shapes the sector’s resilience, productivity, long-term competitiveness and profitability, as well as its capacity to ensure food security.
Competitiveness must first and foremost be addressed within the European Union itself, by ensuring that regulatory frameworks, particularly those related to plant protection products, are coherent, science-based, and workable for producers across the EU, while also enabling them to adapt to the growing challenges posed by climate change. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of certain agronomic pressures, making effective and adaptable crop protection tools even more essential to maintain consistent production and quality standards across the EU. Moreover, a narrow focus on third country imports and third country PPP use risks overlooking structural challenges within the EU itself that directly affect the viability and resilience of its agricultural sector.
European growers face two big challenges at the same time. First, they operate within the EU single market, where they compete with one another under a shared, but not always consistently implemented, regulatory framework. Divergences in interpretation, enforcement, and access to plant protection products create distortions that directly impact competitiveness of the European producers.
Pesticide regulation is a key element of agricultural productivity and food security, as it underpins both the availability and the suitability of crops needed to ensure a stable supply of high-quality food products in the EU. The EU has one of the most stringent regulatory systems in the world, which reflects its environmental and health objectives. However, the cumulative impact of restrictions and withdrawals, combined with the slow pace of innovation and approval of effective alternatives, is increasingly limiting European growers’ ability to manage pests, as well as plant and soil-borne diseases, effectively. These limitations may not only impact yields but also compromise the sanitary conditions and overall quality of crops. This, in turn, can increase the risk of non-compliance later in the food chain and reduce the availability of suitable raw materials for both food and feed applications.
To ensure the long-term sustainability and resilience of EU agriculture, policymakers must refocus the debate on internal competitiveness and ensure that regulatory decisions are grounded in the realities of agricultural production in the EU. Only by addressing these internal challenges can the European Union maintain both high standards and a competitive, thriving European agri-food sector.
Securing the necessary range of effective PPPs in the EU to address problems across all European crops is today’s utmost priority. This should be performed in parallel to ensure that adequate resources are in place to support research, to speed up the approval of new safe active substances, and to facilitate a practical, sustainable and scalable transition. Combined, these actions would enable farmers to tailor pest control to local growing conditions, to fight emerging new diseases or species, to rotate active substances to prevent resistance, and to more effectively combine chemical and non-chemical methods, all of which are essential elements of integrated crop management.
The food chain partner organisations listed on top of this statement call on European and national policymakers to strengthen the internal functioning of the EU agri-food system as a matter of priority. Competitiveness must first be strengthened internally. Priority should be given to tackling inefficiencies, reducing regulatory fragmentation, secure the good and fair functioning of the single market and ensuring more consistent implementation across the EU before focusing on external dimensions.
For more information, see the statement HERE.
