Biocontrol Coalition releases feedback for the EU Single Market consultation

February 2025

The Biocontrol Coalition has submitted its feedback to the European Commission’s consultation on the Single Market Strategy 2025. The submission provides evidence on how the current fragmented regulatory system for biocontrol products impacts farmer competitiveness, innovation, and market access.

The feedback highlights several key issues affecting the availability of biocontrol solutions in the EU:

• Limited access to plant protection tools due to a decline in available active ingredients. According to the Pesticides Database, no new biocontrol active ingredients have been approved in the past two years, with a net loss of eight active ingredients since 2019.
• Increased reliance on Emergency Authorisations, as farmers face a lack of approved alternatives.
• Regulatory barriers disproportionately impacting SMEs, with the approval process taking 8-10 years, limiting market entry for smaller companies.
• EU-funded biocontrol innovation being commercialized outside the EU first, with companies opting for faster regulatory pathways in Brazil and the USA (2-3 years).
• Fragmented national regulatory requirements increasing costs and administrative burdens, delaying access to solutions.

The full submission includes references to studies and reports detailing these challenges, including publications from Marchand (2023), McKinsey (2024), and the European Commission’s Fit4Future Panel on Biosolutions (2022).

The Biocontrol Coalition’s feedback is now available for review as part of the EU Single Market Strategy 2025 consultation process.

📄 Read the full submission here: Feedback from: Biocontrol Coalition

For further details, please contact the Biocontrol Coalition Secretariat at info@biocontrolcoalition.eu