Relaxation of procedures for classified installations (ICPE) and rules on phytosanitary products, facilitation of the construction of water reserves, requalification of environmental controls… The bill tabled on November 1, 2024 by two senators (Franck Ménonville, Union centrist, and Laurent Duplomb, Les Républicains) intends to “liberate agricultural production from normative constraints”, mainly environmental.
Relax the rules on phytos
The first article of this proposal “returns to the separation of the sale and advice of plant protection products”. The senators consider that it “deprives farmers of the advice of technicians from the cooperatives marketing the use of these products and that it shrinks the pool of professionals on the board of directors of the chambers of agriculture”.
The senators also wish to reauthorize neonicotinoids, in accordance with European law as well as “discounts, rebates and rebates” on phyto sales and the possibility for the Ministry of Agriculture to suspend a decision by ANSES (National Security Agency). health) in terms of product approval.
Still on the issue of phytosanitary products, the proposal intends to authorize the distribution of pesticides by drone “when it presents clear advantages for human health and the environment compared to applications by land” and to make strategic phytosanitary advice optional. . The latter was put on hold last winter following the mobilizations.
Simplified ICPE procedures
With the aim of “simplifying the lives of breeders”, the proposal envisages raising the tipping thresholds for installations classified for environmental protection (ICPE). Authorization that senators wish to relax for livestock buildings, accompanying it with “more flexible” public consultation procedures during the ICPE procedure.
More generally, the senators wish to strengthen the “obligations of motivation and transparency of the opinions of the environmental authority […] often used by third parties when appealing against construction or livestock extension projects.
Access to water
Faced with assessments of harvest or crop losses, the senators want to “put in place effective methods of recourse” to challenge them.
In a gesture also aimed at grain growers, the third title of the bill addresses water management. The senators intend to “facilitate water storage projects”. They also propose “adjusting the hierarchy of water uses” by adding agricultural uses among the priority uses.
Concretely, the proposal also intends to “evolve the master plans for development and water management” to take into account agricultural needs. She wants to return to the definition of wetlands before 2019 (requiring both the cumulative presence of hydromorphic terrain and hydrophilic vegetation).
Requalify certain controls
Finally, the senators propose that the OFB “favors” administrative controls “in the event of a first offense or an offense having caused little environmental damage”, rather than judicial ones, “the latter having been deemed disgraceful”.
The single administrative control having been announced by the Minister of Agriculture, the judicial controls reclassified as administrative controls would then fall within the framework of the single control.
The bill is expected to be debated in the Senate on Tuesday, December 17, 2024.
