Brussels, 08/06/2016 (Agence Europe) -The presidents of Copa and Cogeca wrote to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday 7 June calling on him to heed the concerns of European farmers and to renew approval of glyphosate.
On 6 June, member state experts were unable to reach a qualified majority on either approving or rejected the Commission's latest proposal to grant a temporary technical extension to the licence for glyphosate until 31 December 2017 at the latest to await the view of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on the toxicity of this active substance (see EUROPE 11566). The licence for glyphosate expires on 30 June. If a qualified majority of member states cannot be reached, the matter has to be referred to a committee of appeal.
Not renewing approval of glyphosate “would shake the general confidence in the entire EU food safety system and, in particular, in EFSA's role”, state Martin Merrild and Thomas Magnusson, the presidents of Copa and Cogeca respectively. EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, concluded in 2015 that glyphosate is unlikely to present a danger of cancer to humans. This view, however, is disputed. For example, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified it as probably carcinogenic.
The Copa and Cogeca presidents point out that glyphosate is an active substance that is widely used in herbicides across all sectors and members to fight weeds that compete with crops. “Withdrawing this active substance may have a negative impact on the climate and land use”, they state in their letter. Glyphosate is authorised in all member states for a wide range of uses, can be adapted to different production conditions and is sold at a cost-effective price. “At the moment, there is no single alternative that meets all of these criteria”, they say.
It is their belief that withdrawing this active substance would create serious market disruptions in several agricultural sectors in the EU, thus jeopardising the competitiveness of European farmers on the global market. This is of particular import for the cereals sector.
Copa and Cogeca underline that not approving this active substance would in fact benefit third countries that export to the EU, as the substance would still be part of farmers' toolboxes in those countries. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)