REUL: Scant time remains to assess which former EU legislation to keep, amend or revoke – and the environment is likely to pay the price. / While we were EU members, the UK adopted some legislation created by the EU. Jacob Rees-Mogg called them “diktats” and promised that after Brexit we’d “take back control of our laws”. This is disingenuous: the UK was fully involved in drawing up EU law.

Ministers have approved the emergency use of neonicotinoids against the advice of their own experts in a move branded ‘unacceptable’ by environmental groups.

The Wildlife Trusts is to take legal action against the UK government over its decision to allow a pesticide that is almost entirely banned in the EU.

‘We need urgent action to restore the abundance of our insect populations, not broken promises that make the ecological crisis even worse,’ says Wildlife Trusts

MEPs have the power to approve, amend or reject nearly all EU legislation. / So what have they achieved in this five-year term?

EU countries voted on Friday for a near-total ban on insecticides blamed for killing off bee populations, in what campaigners called a “beacon of hope” for the winged insects. /

Fantastic news as countries across the European Union – including the UK – vote to ban the outdoor use of 3 bee-harming pesticides.

Analysis from EU’s scientific risk assessors finds neonicotinoids pose a serious danger to all bees, making total field ban highly likely

The world’s most widely used insecticides will be banned from all fields within six months, to protect both wild and honeybees that are vital to crop pollination.