Revision of Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides with accompanying Impact Assessment
Date: 2021-05-11
Institutions: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, European Commission
Subjects: food safety

PUBLIC CONSULTATION FACTUAL SUMMARY 

The European Commission designed and carried out a  Public Consultation (PC) on the evaluation 
and impact assessment of Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for community action 
to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides. The PC was launched on the 18th of January 2021 and 
remained open for responses until the 12th of April 2021. A total of 1699 responses were received.  

As per the Better Regulation Guidelines1, the responses were checked for the presence of campaigns 
or  coordinated  answers  that  could  skew  the  overall  answers  per  question.  Upon  review,  two 
separate  campaigns  were  identified  comprising  of  59  responses.  These  responses  have  been 
segregated  from  the  dataset  and  will  be  analysed  separately  and  presented  as  part  of  the  final 
synopsis report. Therefore, the final pool of respondents’ totals 1640.  

It is important to note that some sections are specific to certain stakeholder groups therefore each 
question has its own specific response rate (indicated by “N”) which discounts the respondents who 
did not answer or was not relevant for them to answer.  

This factual summary aims to provide an overview of the main responses across some of the key 
questions in the Public Consultation. This summary will also be followed by a more detailed synopsis 
report.  

The PC  was structured across three main categories  –  [1]  profiling questions,  [2] general  views 
concerning  the  use  of  pesticides/plant  protection  products  relevant  to  implementation  of  the 
sustainable use Directive and [3] policy options questions. The following sections will provide an 
summary of the responses across each section.  

PROFILING QUESTIONS 

I am giving my contribution as… (N=1640) 

1 BRG Tool Box, Tool #54. As a rule of thumb, the minimum threshold should be 10 or more identical responses (across all 

the closed questions) to count as a ‘campaign’. 

1 

 
 
 
 
What type of professional user of pesticides are you? (N=390) 

Which specific stakeholder group do you represent? (N=1431) 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Geographic coverage in the EU 27+UK (N= 1573) 

Country of Origin - Non-EU (N=67) 

3 

 
 
 
 
 
 
GENERAL VIEWS CONCERNING THE USE OF PESTICIDES/PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS 
RELEVANT TO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUSTAINABLE USE DIRECTIVE 

Have you used pesticides? (N=471) 

As a professional user, why do you use pesticides? 

As a private user, what purposes do you use pesticides for?  

4 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As a professional user, why do you use pesticides instead of other control techniques? 

As a private, non-professional user, why do you use pesticides instead of other control 
techniques? (N=79) 

How do you rate your knowledge… (N=1639) 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
Have you completed a training course concerning the safe use of pesticides? (N=1639) 

How do you believe that your knowledge of how to safely use, store and dispose of 
pesticides changed as a result of completing this training course? (N=861) 

In your daily professional or private life do you receive any information about the safe 
use, storage and disposal of pesticides? (N=1639) 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
How important for you are each of the following information sources concerning the safe 
use, storage and disposal of pesticides? 

How informed do you believe you are of the impacts that pesticides currently used in the 
EU may have on the environment and human and animal health? 

7 

 
 
 
 
 
Please, indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements…(N=1639) 

Are you aware of alternatives to chemical pesticides for the purposes of crop protection 
in the EU? (N=1639) 

8 

 
 
 
 
 
 
POLICY OPTIONS QUESTIONS 

The following section presents three main questions on the different policy options of the Directive. 
Each question is followed by graphs presenting the stakeholder views per option. 

1.  How important are in your view the following issues for future EU policies on the sustainable 

use of pesticides? 

2.  In your view how effective would the following options be to reduce the use and risk of chemical 

pesticides in the EU? 

3.  In general, what do you think would be the impact of achieving the Green Deal and Farm to 

Fork strategy objective to reduce the use and risk of pesticides in the EU on… 

How  important  are  in  your  view  the  following  issues  for  future  EU  policies  on  the 
sustainable use of pesticides? (N=1640) 

9 

 
 
 
How important are in your view the following issues for future EU policies on the sustainable use of pesticides? [Stakeholder Differences] 

10 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In your view how effective would the following options be to reduce the use and risk of 
chemical pesticides in the EU? (N=1640) 

11 

 
 
 
 
In your view how effective would the following options be to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides in the EU? (N=1640) [Stakeholder Differences] 

12 

 
 
 
 
 
In general, what do you think would be the impact of achieving the Green Deal and Farm 
to Fork strategy objective to reduce the use and risk of pesticides in the EU on… (N=1640) 

13 

 
 
 
 
In general, what do you think would be the impact of achieving the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy objective to reduce the use and risk of pesticides in the EU on… (N=1640) [Stakeholder Differences] 

14 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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