European lawmakers vote to strengthen bee protection

The European Parliament on Wednesday blocked a diluted proposal by the 28-nation bloc's executive arm on protecting bees from pesticides, arguing it didn't go far enough.

European lawmakers adopted a resolution urging the European Commission to "table new legislation based on the latest scientific and technical knowledge."
The Commission's draft, they said, "remains silent on chronic toxicity to honeybees, as well as on toxicity to bumble bees and solitary bees."
According to figures released by the European Parliament, about 84 per cent of crop species and 78 percent of wild flowers across the EU depend to some extent on animal pollination, and almost 15 billion euros (USD 16.5 billion) of the bloc's annual agricultural output "is directly attributed to insect pollinators."
She said the incoming European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her team can, like the Parliament, pass "their first green test" and "protect bees from dangerous pesticides."