Italy
Published on: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0200
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was requested by the European Commission to provide technical assistance in accordance with Article 53(2) of Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009 to examine the emergency authorisations granted in 2017 the competent national authority in Finland for plant protection products containing the neonicotinoid active substances clothianidin or thiamethoxam for uses on spring oilseed rape and spring turnip rape that were restricted in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 485/2013. In particular, EFSA was asked to assess whether the granting of these emergency authorisations and their wide scope were necessary because of danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means. In this context, EFSA collected and evaluated the information in relation to the emergency authorisations for clothianidin and thiamethoxam in Finland in line with the EFSA insecticide protocol developed in the framework of a mandate concerning the application of Article 4(7) of Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009. The current Technical Report summarises the outcome of the evaluation of four crop/pest combinations considered in Finland in 2017 to examine the emergency use of clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
The evaluation demonstrated that for four crop/pest combinations (spring oilseed rape and turnip rape/Phyllotreta undulata and spring oilseed rape and turnip rape/Phyllotreta vittala) no alternative a.s. is currently authorised in Finland to provide an alternative MoA.
The evaluation included an assessment of non-insecticide alternatives for the presented uses. Three non-insecticidal cultural control methods (change in plant/harvesting dates, cover crops and increase crop competitiveness) are available, but they are considered by Finland as not effective or moderately effective (depending on the weather in case of change in plant/harvesting dates), and no information on their specific use is available from Finland, therefore it was concluded that there is no practical, acceptable, established non-insecticide effective programme available to manage Phyllotreta undulata in spring oilseed rape and spring turnip rape.
© European Food Safety Authority, 2015
