Brussels, 05/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to take account of the concerns voiced by some 100 international scientists over renewal of the ten-year authorisation of glyphosate, a herbicide which the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers to be probably carcinogenic but which EFSA says is “probably not”.
European law does not allow the Commission to disregard the EFSA opinion, European Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis has said.
That is the substance of the commissioner's written response of 15 December to Swiss professor Christopher J. Portier, who, on 27 November, sent a letter signed by 96 independent scientists from across the world calling on the commissioner to disregard the EFSA opinion deemed to be “biased” and “misleading” (see EUROPE 11443).
As requested by Professor Portier and the other scientists, the Commission shared the letter with member states at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed on 10-11 December 2015. “I have asked EFSA to consider these concerns, where appropriate in cooperation with the Rapporteur Member State (Ed: Germany), and you will receive a response directly from EFSA shortly”, states the commissioner in his letter.
With regard to the EFSA conclusions published on 12 November 2015 following the peer review (that is, by the member states other than Germany and EFSA) of the evaluation report on glyphosate, Andriukaitis says that the Commission asked EFSA to take account of work carried out by IARC and to involve European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) experts as observers. ECHA is responsible for evaluating chemicals under the terms of Regulation 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures.
The Commission has noted the differences that exist between the IARC and EFSA opinions on the classification of glyphosate and is currently analysing the EFSA opinion to determine whether or not it would be appropriate to propose authorisation renewal, said the commissioner. The Commission has until June 2016 to reach a decision. Stating that European Regulation 1107/2009 on the placing of plant protection products on the market requires that account be taken of the assessment report of the rapporteur member state (here, of the German BfR) and the EFSA conclusions, the commissioner underlined that these are “legal requirements” and made clear that he cannot “simply disregard the EFSA conclusion”.
A petition signed by 135,733 European citizens was lodged with the Commission on 9 December 2015, calling for this pesticide to be banned in the EU (see EUROPE 11449). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =