Pesticides toxic to bees: they are banned throughout Europe, but exemptions continue to be made.

The battle to protect bees from the invasive use of pesticides that put their survival at risk, in Europe it seems never ending. Toxic neonicotinoid-based insecticides have been banned in all EU countries since 2013, but since then, exemptions have multiplied in many European countries to treat plants frequently visited by bees (corn, sunflowers, and other crops) with harmful pesticides. Countries have also (in theory) taken advantage of this: green including  Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Finland, Up to 200 exemptions were approved. Then, in 2023, a new crackdown at the European Union level:  a ruling by the European Court of Justice has established that no exemptions are possible and bees must be protected from pesticides.

 At this point, Romania officially turned a deaf ear and continued to grant exemptions until infringement proceedings were opened against it in Brussels in 2025. But in reality, although less flagrantly than the Bucharest government, other European countries are attempting to circumvent the ban enacted by the Court of Justice and European-wide regulations.

As in the case of the'Italy, which in 2025 requested, and at times obtained, emergency authorizations for the use of specific pesticides, such as sulfoxaflor,  Very toxic to bees. This effectively circumvented the court ruling and European legislation, which Italy, along with six other European countries, intends to review with a formal request to the European Commission to reactivate the procedure for essential uses of banned pesticides.