Constitutional Council Censorship of the Reintroduction of the Pesticide Acetamiprid from the "Duplomb Law": the Minister of Agriculture Reacts

The Constitutional Council on Thursday censored a central provision of the Duplomb law: the conditional reintroduction of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family banned since 2018.

This measure was deemed contrary to the Environmental Charter, due to the lack of sufficient supervision to guarantee everyone's right to live in a healthy environment.

The Sages recalled the risks to biodiversity and human health of this type of product.

This censorship marks a victory for environmentalists, who had mobilized more than 2.1 million signatories against the law.

The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, said on Sunday, August 10, that this decision maintains "a divergence between French law and European law" and the "conditions of unfair competition that run the risk of certain sectors disappearing," promising that the government would be "at their side so as not to leave them without a solution."

"Incomprehensible shock"

On the other hand, the Constitutional Council validated the simplifications for the expansion of large livestock farms and the construction of agricultural water storage facilities, provided that the extraction from inertial water tables is prohibited and that the major general interest status can be contested before the judge.

The procedure for adopting the text, although atypical, was deemed to be in accordance with the Constitution.

This decision provoked mixed reactions: the left and the ecologists welcomed it, while the defenders of the text, such as Laurent Duplomb and the FNSEA, denounced an "incomprehensible shock" and feared unfair competition for French industries.

President Macron promised to promulgate the law "as soon as possible," in accordance with the decision of the Sages.