Asian hornet: MEPs call for a European strategy to eradicate it

Fourteen Members of the European Parliament, including José Bové, submitted a written statement to the European Commission calling for the implementation of a European strategy to manage, combat, and eventually eradicate the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax).   For Éric Andrieu, one of the signatories of this statement and vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture, urgent action is needed. Brussels must implement an action plan to eradicate the Asian hornet without resorting to the widespread use of pesticides—which would endanger bees and the hornet’s natural predators—but by establishing the necessary coordination and monitoring mechanisms and funding research. MEPs are also calling on the Commission to provide financial assistance to compensate beekeepers and fruit growers for their losses. Each year in France, the destruction of Vespa velutina nigrithorax nests costs approximately €300,000 per department, for a national total of 20 to 30 million. This predator, accidentally imported from China by a horticulturist in Lot-et-Garonne in 2004, has since spread widely across France, destabilizing the populations of many native insect species, particularly bees and pollinators. The consequences of its proliferation are not only health-related but also environmental, as bees provide pollination and contribute to biodiversity. And the Asian hornet is not only rampant in France, MEPs point out, but has also invaded Spain along the Cantabrian coast, northern Portugal, as well as Belgium and Italy.   * http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bWDECL%2bP8-DCL-2016-0047%2b0%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fFR