ECCA Challenges Spain Over Hidden Pesticide Assessment Reports
The European Crop Care Association (ECCA), representing Europe’s post-patent plant protection industry, has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission alleging that Spain is repeatedly failing to comply with Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information.
The complaint concerns the administrative practice of Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which ECCA considers to reflect a position of principle that regulatory assessment reports underpinning the authorization of plant protection products, should not be disclosed to third parties.
Drawing on several cases involving ECCA and its members, the complaint challenges what amounts to a general presumption of confidentiality over an entire category of regulatory documents, rather than an individual examination of the information concerned.
“At stake is a fundamental principle of EU law: environmental transparency is the rule, while confidentiality is the exception. The public has a right to access environmental information held by national authorities, without the need to demonstrate any particular interest,” said Athos Pappas, Partner at Pappas & Associates and ECCA’s legal representative. “Genuinely confidential information can be protected, but any refusal to disclose must be individually justified, with exceptions interpreted narrowly. Authorities must also respect the specific disclosure rules for information relating to emissions into the environment.”
ECCA argues that Spain’s approach disregards these rules by treating commercial confidentiality, regulatory data protection and the alleged confidentiality of administrative proceedings as broad grounds for withholding entire assessment reports. Moreover, Spain relies on the commercial purpose of requests as a justification for refusing access to environmental information, effectively restricting a right that EU law expressly guarantees to everyone, regardless of the applicant’s identity, interests or intended use of the information.
Access to these assessment reports helps post-patent manufacturers prepare authorization applications and bring products to market, which can increase competition and broaden the choice of affordable plant protection tools available to farmers.
Implications for agricultural competitiveness in Europe
ECCA underlines that Spain’s interpretation and application of EU rules governing public access to environmental information in the authorization of plant protection products create intra-EU market barriers for Spanish farmers that limit productivity and cost-efficiency, undermining agricultural competitiveness across Europe. According to the latest Eurostat figures*1, average agricultural output prices fell by 5.8% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, while prices for inputs consumed in agriculture rose by 4.7%. This was the third consecutive quarter of declining output prices.
“The question is no longer simply how to strengthen agricultural competitiveness. It is how to reverse its erosion when regulatory barriers continue to undermine farmers’ access to affordable and effective plant protection,” said Paolo Marchesini, General Manager of ECCA. “Amid heightened geopolitical instability and the impact of climate change, farmers are already under pressure to sustain production and manage costs. A functioning EU Single Market should support their ability to do so. When the same European rules are applied differently across Member States, farmers face unequal access to the tools they need to remain competitive.”
In March 2026, Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, called for changes to EU plant protection legislation*2, acknowledging that the current authorization system does not provide farmers with sufficient tools or timely access to them.
“Despite this acknowledgement, the Ministry [of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food] has not changed its restrictive approach to environmental information, which is exacerbating barriers to affordable and effective solutions Spanish farmers desperately need,” Marchesini underlined. “ECCA is fully committed to ensuring a high level of protection of human health and the environment, while respecting legitimate commercial confidentiality and regulatory data protection rights. Our complaint seeks to ensure that these protections are not invoked to restrict access to environmental information beyond what EU law permits.”
Through the complaint, ECCA calls on the European Commission to investigate Spain’s pattern of refusals to disclose regulatory assessment reports and take appropriate steps to ensure the correct and consistent application of EU law, strengthening public transparency, regulatory accountability and fair competition across a fully functioning EU Single Market.
The complaint to the European Commission is part of ECCA’s wider advocacy for predictable authorization procedures and consistent implementation of EU rules. Through the Food and Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus, ECCA is calling for a workable EU-wide data protection framework, with an objective EU-level starting point, safeguards against unintended extensions of protection and a centralized database.
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