A major victory for the world's bee populations has been achieved in Europe, where a majority of European Union (EU) member states voted recently to ban the use of bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides across the entire continent for at least two years. In an overwhelming vote of 15 to 8, these member states decided that, based on a plethora of scientific evidence, the use of thiamethoxam, clothianidin, and imidacloprid on crops is destroying bee populations, and thus must end.

The decision comes after months of deliberation over the safety of neonicotinoids, which have repeatedly been shown to be a significant, if not the primary, factor causing the global phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD is characterized by worker bees leaving to forage and never returning, or simply dropping dead in large groups for no apparent reason. Another common characteristic of CCD is excess deaths among queen bees, which acts as a type of mother to the rest of the bees.

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