Three years ago the European Union appeared poised to tackle pesticide use head-on. Public concern was high — roughly 40% of citizens worried about pesticide residues in food and more than a million people backed calls for a phaseout — and the European Parliament prepared to vote on a binding proposal to halve pesticide use by 2030 against a 2015–2017 baseline. At the time, officials warned that without major reductions the bloc risked pollinator and ecosystem collapse with knock-on effects for food security.
By 2026 that mandatory reduction has been abandoned. The European Commission has since shifted priorities from compulsory cuts to reducing regulatory burdens for businesses, and has floated a late-2025 proposal to automatically reapprove many pesticides after their initial approval period rather than subjecting them to fresh safety reviews. Campaign groups and some researchers say that move would keep risky chemicals on the market longer and weaken the connection between pesticide use and public and environmental health.
What the data show
Comparing use and sales across the EU is complicated because there is no consistent country-level dataset for actual on-farm pesticide application. Analysts therefore rely on sales as a proxy. Broadly, long-term estimates indicate pesticide volumes in the EU have fallen since 2015 — on the order of roughly 14–18% depending on the source — but the trend reversed in 2024.
Eurostat and other data analyzed for 2024 show an overall increase in sales compared with 2023. Sales in 2024 were about 8% higher than the previous year even though, measured against 2015, overall levels remain lower. The picture at national level varies widely: five large agricultural producers — Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland — accounted for around 76% of EU pesticide sales in 2024 and together showed an uptick of nearly 10% compared with 2023. Some countries saw sharp rises: Bulgaria and Austria recorded increases of roughly a quarter compared with the 2015–2017 baseline, while others recorded declines — Italy achieved the largest cut, reducing sales by about a third.
Hazardous chemicals and glyphosate
Trends for highly hazardous pesticides are particularly worrying. Over the decade to 2024 the reduction in this subgroup was smaller than for pesticides overall, and between 2023 and 2024 sales of these high-risk substances rose by about 27%, driven mainly by Spain, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. Glyphosate, the controversial herbicide linked in some studies to cancer risk and other health concerns, increased substantially as well — up by more than 40% between 2015 and 2024 in reported sales figures.
Why sales are an imperfect guide
Sales volumes do not capture differences in toxicity, application rates or environmental persistence. A small quantity of a highly toxic product can present greater risk than a larger amount of a low-risk product. Still, rising sales of hazardous classes and of substances like glyphosate are a clear signal that the potential for harm to people, wildlife and ecosystems is not necessarily declining.
Environmental and health risks
Scientific reviews and UN assessments link widespread pesticide use to biodiversity declines and damage to soil, water, pollinators, birds and aquatic life. Monitoring of river water across the EU shows many countries exceed safety thresholds established for individual pesticides. In 2023 only Lithuania and Slovenia reported pesticide levels in rivers within recommended limits. Sweden has shown one of the strongest improvements in residues, dropping from roughly double the recommended limit in 2018 to only slightly above it five years later. In contrast, Denmark, Latvia and Hungary recorded concentrations that exceeded safe thresholds by 50% or more in recent monitoring.
Why the 50% cut failed
A more forceful EU response was prompted by a 2020 European Court of Auditors report that concluded earlier measures were not delivering meaningful reductions. That helped trigger the Commission’s 2022 proposal for a binding 50% cut. But when lawmakers debated the measure in November 2023 the package did not pass: the revision was rejected by the Parliament, with 299 votes against and 207 in favour. Some pro-environment groups and Green and left-wing lawmakers opposed the final draft on the grounds it had been weakened in key areas and would not adequately protect public health, biodiversity or farmers.
Policy U-turn and the Commission’s argument
Since that vote, the Commission has reprioritized reducing administrative costs and streamlining approvals. Its stated argument is that easing regulatory hurdles will encourage the development and uptake of genuinely low-risk alternatives and speed market access for safer products. Critics counter that automatic reapproval or lighter reassessments will keep riskier products available for longer and undermine commitments under global agreements — including the Global Biodiversity Framework, to which the EU is a signatory and which aims to halve environmental risks from pesticides by 2030.
Voices from the field
Researchers and advocacy groups warn that non-binding targets are unlikely to deliver the necessary reductions and that political resistance to imposing burdens on farmers remains strong. Supporters of tougher action point to mounting evidence on ecosystem harm and argue that robust regulation, coupled with support for farmers to adopt sustainable practices, would reduce both environmental and human health risks.
A note on the data and next steps
Because comparable national on-farm use data are limited, sales figures remain the most comprehensive short-term indicator of trends. The recent uptick in 2024 sales, the rise in hazardous-substance purchases and the policy shift away from mandatory cuts all raise questions about how the EU will meet its environmental and public-health commitments. Ongoing monitoring, transparent data, and renewed policy debate will determine whether the bloc reverses course or continues toward lighter regulation of pesticides.