Still no impact assessment: EU MEP ignores call for impact study of the EU Food and Feed Safety Omnibus
This week, the European Parliament had a long overdue opportunity to get an impact assessment started on the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus. In a joint letter, CRIN and five other child rights and youth organisations urged MEP Pieter Liese to support the request to study the effects of the Omnibus more rigorously, emphasising its potential impact on children. Our call was left unanswered.
Six months ago, several child rights and youth organisations warned that the proposed EU Food and Feed Safety Omnibus - an EU deregulation proposal that would dismantle key pesticide standards - could weaken children’s rights and have detrimental impacts on environmental health. This week, the EU Parliament finally had a chance to start an impact assessment process on this proposal.
In a joint letter sent last Friday, six child rights and youth organisations - including CRIN - urged Pieter Liese, a doctor, MEP and coordinator at the Parliament’s Environment Committee, to support the request for an assessment aiming at thoroughly studying the economic, social and environmental impacts of this Omnibus. Despite the risk of the Omnibus on children’s rights and children’s health, he voted against this demand for the impact study.
This decision is not just an issue for one MEP. Overall, the coordinators from right wing and far right groups have rejected the demand for an impact assessment - in a clear refusal to listen to both human rights experts and to science. Just last Friday, scientists from 27 European research institutions published a clear warning in the journal Science against the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus proposal. Their call was also completely ignored.
Rolling back on pesticides safety standards could have severe impacts on children’s health and children’s rights. Those consequences should be carefully assessed, keeping the prevention and precaution principles and children’s rights as primary considerations.
The Council of the European Union and the EU Parliament are now putting together their respective positions on the proposed Omnibus. With the rejection of an impact assessment, the EU missed one opportunity to safeguard children’s health. In their decisions now, the EU institutions must prioritise children’s safety - coming up with compromises that do not prioritise agrochemicals’ interests over the health of farmers, young people and children.
To the attention of Dr. Peter Liese, Member of the European Parliament and ENVI coordinator for the EPP group
Dear Dr. Liese,
We are writing on behalf of the signatory child rights and youth-led organisations dedicated to child protection and the respect of children and young people’s rights in the European Union and beyond. Upholding their rights requires maintaining the highest possible level of health standards, considering their specific vulnerability to pollution, including pesticides.
In this regard, the European Regulation 1107/2009 on the placing of plant protection products on the market, while still improvable, establishes important safeguards to better protect children and young people from pesticides exposure.
In December 2025, 18 child rights and youth-led organisations warned that the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus proposed by the European Commission would significantly weaken this key regulation, consequently undermining children’s and young people’s rights to health.
As you know, children are uniquely vulnerable to chemical exposure, including pesticides. A wide range of independent scientific studies have linked pesticide exposure during pregnancy and childhood to a range of severe health issues, including adverse birth outcomes, cognitive and developmental impairments, increased risk of childhood cancers such as leukaemia, respiratory and immune system disorders, as well as hormone disruption affecting growth, reproductive health and puberty.
Young people are also impacted by pesticides exposure. Their bodies are still undergoing hormonal, neurological, and reproductive development. As such, they are very sensitive to hazards, including endocrine disrupting substances such as pesticides, which interfere with the body's hormonal system. Additionally, many young people work in agriculture and seasonal outdoor jobs, where they can face high exposure by handling treated crops and working in recently sprayed areas.
Considering the significant changes the Omnibus lays down on pesticides management, the absence of impact assessment on this proposal is particularly concerning and goes against the rigor expected when tabling and debating legislative initiatives. Questioning a regulation as consequential and important as Regulation 1107/2009 could have long-term consequences on the youngest and future generations. Lawmaking should always be informed by the latest data and scientific evidence available.
The upcoming vote in the ENVI Committee on requesting an impact assessment by the European Parliament’s research service is therefore crucial. It offers an opportunity to better inform any decisions on this Omnibus, whose consequences for the health of foetuses, children and young people could be far-reaching, and even irreversible.
As such, the signatory child rights and youth-led organisations strongly urge you to support the proposal for an impact assessment by the European Parliament’s research service. This process would provide a timely opportunity to examine the potential consequences of the Omnibus as well as the alternatives approaches to simplification that do not weaken health protection, undermine human rights and jeopardise child protection. Any ‘simplification’ process should always carefully take into account the short, medium and long-term impacts as well as the costs linked to health, especially for current and future generations of children and young people.
Sincerely yours,
Sabine Saliba, Secretary General, Eurochild
Lianne Minasian, Co-Director, Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Daniel Bacher, Co-Director, Dreikönigsaktion der Katholischen Jungschar (DKA Austria)
Stephanny Ulivieri, Secretary General, Youth and Environment Europe (YEE)
Emily Berglund, Executive Director, Heirs To Our Ocean
João Paulo Amaral, Nature Manager, Alana