Parliament to vote in December on proposed pesticide Omnibus
The Council wants unlimited approvals limited to low-risk substances, while 550 scientists urge suspension and EFSA says about 50 more experts would cut reassessment delays.
The European Commission's Food and Feed Safety Omnibus would give unlimited approvals to most pesticide and biocide active substances, ending periodic review. A small group of particularly high-risk substances would keep expiry dates and reassessments. Parliament expects to vote in December, sources cited by AFP said, with a plenary vote by mid-month.
In September, Sandra Gallina, the Commission's health and food safety director-general, said the package would save EUR 1 billion a year from 2029 for businesses and national administrations. That month, more than 550 scientists signed an open letter asking Parliament and the Council to suspend the proposal, arguing the system must be able to correct yesterday's decisions with today's knowledge. In December 2025, Faustine Bas-Defossez of the European Environmental Bureau called the proposal "nothing short of a death sentence" for farmers' health, children's health and nature.
The proposal was born in December 2025, when the Commission put forward the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus as its tenth simplification package, one of twelve presented since February 2025. Substances now get 10 years on first approval and up to 15 years on renewal. Approvals stay conditional, and member states can still ask for a review. Behind the package sits Olivér Várhelyi, the health commissioner, whose simplification agenda had already drawn scrutiny from health and environmental groups, Politico reported in 2025.
On 30 September, the Council, where the member states sit, set its negotiating position on the food and feed safety part of Omnibus X. On 4 November, about a hundred environmental activists gathered in Brussels to call for abandoning the law. The next day, PAN Europe released a YouGov poll covering seven European countries with about 1,000 respondents each. It found 80 percent in Romania and 77 percent in France support ending pesticide use progressively, against 68 percent in Spain.
Lobby demands in the text
Corporate Europe Observatory said key lobby demands from Bayer, BASF, CropLife Europe and Copa-Cogeca ended up almost word for word in the Commission's Omnibus X proposal and in amendments by co-rapporteurs Herbert Dorfmann of the EPP and Michele Picaro of the ECR.
The Council pulled the Commission's open-ended idea back to earth. Its 30 September mandate reserves unlimited approvals for low-risk active substances and the plant protection products containing them. It sets approval periods at 15 years on first approval and 25 years on renewal. Substances such as PFAS continue to be assessed periodically. Phyteis, the crop protection industry group, called the position markedly less ambitious than the Commission's version.
The Commission argues the pesticide renewal system has become unsustainable, with chronic delays and slow, resource-intensive reviews tying up regulators who could assess more sustainable substances. Phyteis president Yves Picquet said the Council position 'forgets the main thing'. The Omnibus X text is not yet stabilised, he said, and the coming trilogue negotiations will be decisive.
The legal instrument
The legal instrument behind the debate is the Commission proposal of 16 December 2025, issued in Strasbourg as Staff Working Document SWD(2025) 1030 final. It simplifies food and feed safety rules and amends Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 on plant protection products. Earlier, in May, EFSA, the EU food safety agency, had estimated that recruiting about 50 additional experts would drastically cut delays in pesticide reassessments. On that staffing plan, EFSA reckoned the backlog of renewal assessments could be cleared in roughly three years, against eight under unlimited approvals.
Phyteis reported that Parliament's position on Omnibus X is expected at the earliest at the end of 2026. It would serve as the basis for trilogue negotiations with the Council and the Commission starting in 2027.