The President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, “put on notice” the pesticide lobbyist Phyteis

2023-07-04 11:00:20

This is a first since the “Sapin II” law of 2016. The Senate and the National Assembly have “put on notice” Phyteis, which represents 19 pesticide manufacturers. The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet denounced the behavior of the lobbyist whom she accuses of having “breached the code of conduct of the National Assembly”, AFP learned on Monday. She asked him “to respect the ethical obligations to which interest representatives are subject”.

This “formal notice” from the Assembly follows a report from the PS deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle Dominique Potier and four associations. The ethics officer of the National Assembly, Jean-Éric Gicquel, first considered that Phyteis “had lacked prudence and rigor in its contacts with the deputies”, according to a press release from the presidency of the Assembly.

Numbers without explanation

Phyteis “had indicated to deputies that 2,700 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect jobs were threatened by the ban, provided for by the law of October 30, 2018 known as the “Egalim law”, to produce, store and circulate in France, from of January 1, 2022, pesticides containing substances banned in the European Union”, indicates the presidency. But the ethics officer “found that Phyteis had not been able to explain the methodology used objectively and with figures”.

Requested by Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), “Phyteis was not able to provide additional elements likely to call into question the finding of breach established by the Ethics Officer”, adds the press release from the Assembly. “The President therefore notes that Phyteis’ actions constitute a breach of the National Assembly’s code of conduct applicable to interest representatives, which provides that the information provided by interest representatives “must not contain elements deliberately inaccurate intended to mislead the deputies”, concludes Yaël Braun-Pivet.