Luxembourg, 20/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Ségolène Royal, the French Minister of the Environment, wrote to the European Commission on Friday 17 June, to ask it substantially to improve its proposal on the criteria to define and identify endocrine disruptors, in order to improve the health and environmental protection for European citizens. She is expected to report to her colleagues on this in Luxembourg on Friday 24 June (see EUROPE 11575).
“The WHO's decision is a step in the right direction. I wrote to the Commission asking for the definition to be considerably improved and I made specific proposals”, Royal told EUROPE on Monday 20 June upon her arrival at the Environment Council. France is calling for a definition to be adopted which also includes presumed or suspected endocrine disruptors. The member state argues that the Commission's restrictive proposal would require too high a level of proof for a substance to be identified as an endocrine disruptor. France is calling for the exclusion clauses of the 'Pesticides' and 'Biocides' regulations to apply “in order to exclude these dangerous substances from the market”. Royal also said that France would “vote against” the proposed temporary prolongation of the licence glyphosate at the appeals committee on 24 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)