The Constitutional Council on [Dec 10] gave the green light to the law re-authorizing for three years the use of sugar beet seeds coated with neonicotinoid insecticides ….

The contested provisions “do not allow the ban on the use of [neonicotinoids] to be waived except as a transitional measure, while alternative solutions can be developed. This possibility is open exclusively until July 1, 2023,” the Council wrote.

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Much to the chagrin of environmentalists, French sugar beet growers, who have suffered losses estimated at 280 million euros, obtained from the government the reintroduction of neonicotinoids ….“Generation Ecology takes note of the decision” of the Constitutional Council, said its president Delphine Batho, expressing in a press release its “disappointment, in view of the …. monstrous consequences on pollinators, birds and many other species.”

The sugar beet harvest in France fell by 30% in 2020 compared to the average of the last five years, falling to the lowest in more than 30 years, after the invasion of virus-carrying aphids, which foliar insecticide treatments did not control very well.

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