Hungary has become the sixth European Union member state to complete collecting enough signatures for the success of an EU Citizens’ Initiative aiming to save honeybees, biodiversity and farmers, the Hungarian Nature Protection Association reported on Monday. 

The target number of 15,750 signatures have been reached over the weekend, thus Hungary has fulfilled its share of the total one million signatures needed for an initiative to reach the European Commission. The Association stated that nearly half of the total number needed has been collected so far across the EU. 

While the number of honeybee colonies in Hungary has nearly doubled since 2009, farmers started to experience a slight decline recently. Many fear that some of the most common pesticides we use would bring about a destruction among domestic colonies that Western Europe has seen for a while now.

The European Citizens’ Initiative in question calls on the European Commission to establish a legal background for phasing out synthetic pesticides by 2035 in order to restore biodiversity and save honeybee colonies across the continent, as well as to support farmers during the transition.

Source: MTI