Denmark’s public accounts committee has issued sharp criticism of the Environment Ministry’s control of farmers’ pesticide use, after the national audit office found that the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law for years.
Dagbladet Information reports that Statsrevisorerne, the Folketing’s public accounts committee, delivered the criticism in a statement on Monday, September 7, 2026. The wording is the second highest of five levels on the committee’s scale.
The committee’s chair, Mette Abildgaard of the Conservative People’s Party, told Information that such harsh criticism is rare. She said the authorities’ control in this area has failed extremely, and that illegal use could be reported for years without consequences.
The criticism follows a new report from Rigsrevisionen, the national audit office, which concludes that the Environment Ministry’s control of pesticide use is strongly unsatisfactory. In its statement published by the Folketing, Statsrevisorerne describe the control as strongly worrying and wholly inadequate.
According to the report, the Environmental Protection Agency, Miljøstyrelsen, broke the law over a period of several years. Farmers were able to report illegal use, including unapproved products and excessive doses, without any follow-up. Information’s earlier reporting showed the agency only began checking such reports in the spring of 2025.
The audit office also found the basis for the control insufficient. Farmers keep their own spray journals and report annually to the agency’s electronic system, SJI. Companies can correct, delete or omit entries, and the agency has not verified whether the information is accurate.
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Rigsrevisionen notes that the agency has known since 2018 that not all pesticide use is reported correctly. The report states that 7,800 tonnes of glyphosate purchased over the past 15 years were never reported as used, and that the agency has not investigated where those volumes went.
Minister calls parties to negotiations
Environment Minister Maria Reumert Gjerding of the Socialist People’s Party said in a press release that she takes the criticism very seriously. She will call the Folketing’s parties to negotiations on a new pesticide strategy that follows up on the audit office’s findings. Miljøstyrelsen stated that it takes note of the criticism.
The criticism lands while politicians are negotiating a national spraying ban intended to protect future drinking water. Physical inspections on farms are handled by the Agency for Green Land Conversion and Water Environment, while overall responsibility rests with the Environment Ministry.
Rigsrevisionen writes that inspectors have little beyond the farms’ own journals to rely on. The report takes up the idea of a pesticide account, comparing reported use with dealers’ records of purchases. Carsten Cramer, a former official at the Danish Agricultural Agency, told Information he hopes the report proves politically useful.
The report also shows that the Environment Ministry disputed parts of the criticism, arguing that the audit office set its own criteria and went beyond its mandate. Rigsrevisionen rejects that, stating that its criteria follow existing rules and standard requirements for effective administration.
