EU scraps pesticide proposals in another concession to protesting farmers

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm is shelving an anti-pesticides proposal in yet another concession to farmers after weeks of protests blocked major capitals and economic lifelines across the 27-nation bloc. Although the proposal had languished in EU institutions for the past two years, the move by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the latest indication that the bloc is willing to let slip some environmental concerns to keep the farming community on its side. Farmers have insisted that measures like the one of the one on pesticides would only increase the bureaucratic burden and keep them behind laptops and add to the price gap between their products and cheap foreign imports.