The Commission proposes replacing routine renewals with exceptional safety reviews. EU member states favour limiting indefinite approval to low-risk substances.
The European Commission is proposing open-ended approval as the default for pesticide active substances—the ingredients that act against pests or weeds. Routine safety reassessments would give way to reviews in exceptional cases, a change the Commission says would ease delays in approving newer, more sustainable products.
EU rules dating from 2011 instead require time-limited approvals and periodic assessments before renewal. Member states favour a narrower change that would reserve indefinite approval for low-risk substances. These remain competing proposals, not enacted rules.
The proposals differ over both how long an approval lasts and when a substance must face another safety assessment. DW reports the following positions:
| Approach | Approval period | Renewals and reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Current rules | Time-limited, up to 15 years | Periodic renewal assessments |
| Commission proposal | Indefinite approval would become the default | Safety reviews only in exceptional cases, with responsibility resting on regulators rather than industry |
| Member states' negotiating position |
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| Indefinite approval only for low-risk substances; initial approvals for others up to 15 years |
| Renewal periods for other substances up to 25 years |
The Commission told DW that reassessing every active substance periodically had become unsustainable because of chronic delays and approval bottlenecks. It says its goals are to cut costs, simplify authorities' work and keep farmers competitive, while maintaining human and animal health and environmental protection as its highest priorities.
Herbert Dorfmann, a European Parliament member helping negotiate the rules, supports the Commission’s approach. He says yearslong delays leave farmers relying on older substances—or without alternatives when those substances are banned.
Martina Vijver, a Leiden University expert in how toxic substances affect ecosystems, agrees that more environmentally friendly pesticides face administrative delays. She supports a faster approval route for biocontrol products, which use biological methods to control pests, while retaining safety reviews to screen out more dangerous products.
Salome Roynel, a policy officer at Pesticide Action Network Europe, also supports faster biocontrol approvals. She says farmers need financial support, monitoring and training to use these products, alongside continued restrictions on more harmful chemical pesticides. In her view, making synthetic pesticides easier to obtain would reduce farmers' incentive to switch.
Corporate Europe Observatory, a nonprofit research and campaign group, said Dorfmann and other lawmakers copied industry demands into their proposals. Dorfmann denied lobby influence, telling DW that he had met both industry and environmental associations in public debates. He said his main aim was to bring new products to market, not keep old ones there.
Vijver argues that regular reassessments let regulators revisit earlier decisions as scientific findings and understanding of risk change. Roynel told DW that periodic reviews had led to EU bans on 56 active substances since 2011, illustrating why she wants those checks retained.
Pesticides can persist in the environment, contaminate water, degrade soil and harm wildlife. DW also reports links between chemical pesticide exposure and cancers, neurological disorders and other health conditions. Those associations do not by themselves establish causation. The European Environment Agency says it is not yet possible to estimate the amount of illness linked to current exposure levels across all pesticides.
The next planned step is a vote on Parliament’s own proposal. Dorfmann aims to bring that position before EU lawmakers before the end of 2026, as negotiations continue over which substances could receive indefinite approval and when their safety would be reviewed.
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The change applies across pension schemes from 28 October 2026. Where the member died before 75 and had enough remaining allowance, delays beyond two years no longer make lump sums taxable.
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