T
he Constitutional Council did not need to resort to convoluted legal reasoning to put an end, on Thursday, August 7, to the most heated political controversy in France this summer. By introducing, through the Duplomb Law passed on July 8, an exception to the ban on neonicotinoids – pesticides banned in France since 2018 – without any time limit or restrictions on use, the Parliament "deprived the right to live in a balanced and healthy environment of legal guarantees." That right is specifically enshrined in the French Environmental Charter, which was initiated by then persident Jacques Chirac in 2004 and incorporated the following year into the French Constitution.
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France's Constitutional Council partially blocks Duplomb Law, yet political battles continue
In ruling the most controversial provision of the Duplomb Law, "aimed at lifting constraints on the profession of farming," unconstitutional, the nine judges of the Constitutional Council held that the exception granted by this bill covers "all agricultural sectors" for an indefinite period. It doesn't matter whether or not they are threatened by pests, even though the products in question "have an impact on biodiversity (...) and create risks for human health."
