Brussels, 31/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 6 June, the European Commission will propose to member states' experts an extension of the authorisation for glyphosate until mid-2017 or the end of 2017 in order to give the European Chemical Products Agency (ECHA) time to establish whether this highly controversial pesticide (and the one most widely used in Europe) is an endocrine disruptor.
“It is not a new authorisation, but an extension of the old authorisation”, a European source explained to EUROPE on Tuesday 31 May. It will submitted to the EU's plants, animals, food and feed committee (the PAFF committee), which had put glyphosate on the agenda for its meeting on 6 June.
The current licence for glyphosate expires on 30 June 2016. After having its fingers burned by the member states' inability to strike a qualified majority agreement on its various proposals for renewal of authorisation for the pesticide, the European Commission is playing for time, but has not given up (see EUROPE 11554). European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytneis Andriukaitis, will explain this new development to the press on Wednesday 1 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)