(CN) - Europe's long-running fight over a controversial farm chemical drew near an end Wednesday, as the EU's General Court backed the bloc's 2020 decision to pull the fungicide mancozeb from the market.

The judges agreed that EU regulators slipped up on some of the science but said the error wasn't enough to overturn the broader safety findings that justified the ban.

The ruling caps a long fight led by pesticide makers UPL Europe and Indofil Industries, which argued Brussels overreacted in banning one of Europe's most widely used crop treatments.

Mancozeb, a fungicide long used on potatoes, tree fruits, vines, carrots and onions, won EU approval in 2006 for 10 years. As that deadline approached, Brussels granted a short extension until Jan. 31, 2021, to finish reviewing whether the chemical should stay on the market. In 2013 and 2014, its producers formed the "EU Mancozeb Task Force" and filed fresh data to support their bid for renewal.

The process dragged on for years, bouncing between national and EU regulators. The U.K. initially handled the scientific review before Greece took over after Brexit, while the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemicals Agency assessed health and environmental risks. By 2020, Brussels decided enough was enough, refusing to renew mancozeb's approval over concerns it could harm both people and wildlife.

When Brussels made its call, it leaned heavily on advice from the chemical agency's Risk Assessment Committee, which had suggested labeling mancozeb as highly toxic to reproduction, a step that would automatically bar it under EU pesticide law. The food safety agency went further, saying the chemical also appeared to disrupt hormones and exposed nearby workers and residents to unsafe levels.

The companies pushed back, arguing that regulators had gone after the wrong culprit. They said Brussels fixated on ethylene thiourea - a chemical that forms when mancozeb breaks down and has been tied to thyroid and developmental problems in lab studies - instead of judging the fungicide itself. They also noted the committee's warning was only advisory, not legally binding. 

The General Court initially dismissed the companies' claims, but the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice, sent part of that judgment back for review.

The lower court sided with the companies about the advisory ruling, noting that when the ban took effect, mancozeb was still classified in a lower-risk category that didn't automatically bar its use. Judges said the commission had overreached by relying only on advice from the EU's own chemical watchdog without offering any fresh evidence, calling it a clear mistake in judgment.

Still, the court didn't throw out the ban. It said other warning signs - like the food safety agency's conclusion that mancozeb disrupts hormones and threatens birds, mammals and other wildlife - were enough to keep the chemical off the market.

The judges dismissed new complaints that Greek officials mishandled parts of the science or that small changes in farming could make mancozeb safe, noting those points had already been settled. 

With no major flaws found in how Brussels judged the risks, the ruling keeps the ban firmly in place. 

UPL Europe and Indofil, meanwhile, must foot their own legal bills as well as the commission's.

In a statement to Courthouse News, the EU Mancozeb Task Force, representing UPL and Indofil, said it notes the court's decision but welcomes the finding that the commission had made a "manifest error of assessment" in the non-renewal process. 

"This recognition confirms the core concern consistently raised by UPL and Indofil, that regulatory decisions should be based on modern, comprehensive scientific evidence," the group said, calling the ruling "a setback for European farmers, who continue to face challenges in protecting crops and maintaining competitive yields without this trusted tool."

The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling closes a long chapter in the EU's battle over mancozeb, once a farming staple now deemed too risky for people and wildlife, and keeps the bloc's precaution-first pesticide ban firmly in place.

The companies still have one last option - they can appeal to the EU's top court on points of law - but if they don't act within two months, Wednesday's judgment will stand as the final word across the bloc.

Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.

Source: Courthouse News Service