Brussels, 19/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - Once again, no decision has been taken on renewing the authorisation of glyphosate as, ultimately, no vote took place at the EU's Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed in Brussels on Thursday 19 May (see EUROPE 11553).
The reason was that the Commission indicated that its amended draft regulation which reduced the period of re-authorisation of this highly controversial weed killer to nine years, with no restrictions on usage, would not achieve the qualified majority among the member state experts needed for adoption (see EUROPE 11551). It decided, therefore, that there was no point in putting it to the vote.
This latest postponement of voting gives fresh hope to the increasing numbers of opponents of a weed killer which the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says is probably carcinogenic. The European Food Safety Authority, on the other hand, takes the view that the molecule on its own (without its co-formulants) is probably not.
Time is short as the licence authorising glyphosate will expire on 30 June. The Commission proposal, seeking a balanced compromise, was unable to overcome the same inability to reach a decision as was demonstrated by the member states on 8 March when they did not vote on the initial proposal for renewal for a period of 15 years (see EUROPE 11507).
“If no decision is taken before June 30, glyphosate will be no longer authorised in the EU and member states will have to withdraw authorisations for all glyphosate-based products”, warned a Commission spokesperson in a press release. And that is precisely what is wanted by many in civil society, members of the WeMove.EU movement who demonstrated outside the EU Standing Committee meeting on 18 May but who are wary of the agricultural lobbies which are calling for a 15-year renewal (see EUROPE 11533).
A further meeting of the committee could be held in June but no date has, as yet, been set aside. It is there that the fate of Round Up, the most widely used weed killer but now also the despised in Europe, will be sealed. If no decision is reached, it will be for the Commission to make the ruling, something it wants to avoid so as not to bear sole responsibility in a procedure that has been going on with member states for over a year.
“The issue is becoming ever more political. Commissioner Andriukaitis has called many times on the member states to accept their responsibilities in this matter”, a Commission spokesperson told EUROPE.
If a vote had taken place, Germany, the rapporteur member state on the re-assessment of glyphosate, would have abstained because of the differing views held by the Federal Ministries of the Economy and of the Environment. France had already announced on 18 May that it would vote against re-authorisation, and a number of other starts, including Italy, intended to do likewise.
“A further meeting should be held in June. That would leave the pro-glyphosate governments, which include Belgium's, a little time to come to their senses and stop putting people's health at risk”, said MEP Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), hailing “a first defeat for the lobbyists” and “a battle won through the pressure brought to bear by a number of national and European elected representatives, and by independent scientists who are swinging the balance in the right direction”, that of the principle of precaution. “When there are serious doubts over the toxicity of a product, its use must be banned. One can't play with the health of 500 million Europeans.”
Bert Staes (Greens/EFA, Belgium), the Greens Group spokesman on the environment and food safety, sees the postponement of the vote as “a sign that the significant opposition to reapproving glyphosate is being taken seriously by key EU governments” and hopes that others will follow their lead. “It is clear that the EU Commission and the agro-chemical industry were hell-bent on bulldozing through the approval of glyphosate for unrestricted use for a long timeframe”, he says, criticising the Commission for coming back to the member states “with a proposal that takes no account of the vote in Parliament” opposing approval of glyphosate in agriculture when alternative methods of weed control are available, during the period before crops are harvested, in public parks and playgrounds and by hobby gardeners (see EUROPE 11531).
For Greenpeace, Franziska Achterberg, EU Food Policy Director, says that this second postponement of voting “is no surprise, since the Commission has continued to ignore the concerns of independent scientists, MEPs and European citizens. It's time for the Commission to change course”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)