Book excerpt: This report is one of six sub-reports forming part of PES-A/Phase 2 of a joint project addressing the development and evaluation of strategies for future plant protection policy in the EU. The project has been conducted under the aegis of DG XI of the European Commission, and the Dutch Ministry of the Environment (VROM). The starting point for the project (both Phase 1 and 2) was the hypothesis that intensive agricultural production in a large part of the EU has resulted in pollution from, inter alia, plant protection products (PPP), with resulting threats to groundwater, surface water, soil and air quality.