Mr Borst said, "The bans introduced in France left no significant mark on the bee mortality statistics." As it is acknowledged That there are no reliable bee mortality statistics for France I fail to see how he can make this Claim. Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe EFSA https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadNews.cfm?id=54 See 1.2.6.6 Section 6: Data management specifically 1.2.7.10 France “the active system is not specifically oriented towards colony losses. Weak central organisation.” And for the influence of the pesticide lobbies on European legislation. The European Beekeeping Coordination (EBC) in a pdf European Commission allows corporations to shape the pesticide rules http://www.corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/content/2010/11/whose-hands-future-bees To finish, even COLOS has doubts about the independence of the current system has called on the EU Commission “to support independent research on bee mortality” *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm