On the initiative of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, 27 MEPs (Greens, S&D, EPP, GUE/NGL and EFDD) came together to call on Friday 24 March for the Commission not to renew the glyphosate licence which is due to expire in around six months time and to take any action necessary to guarantee the immediate protection of public health and of the environment.
The revelations in the “Monsanto Papers” that multinational had concealed damning studies on harmful impacts of active substance in the world’s most used herbicide and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) opinion of 15 March that glyphosate cannot be classified as carcinogenic which is completely at odds with the conclusions of WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) serve only to deepen their concerns (see EUROPE 11750 and 11746).
The 27 MEPs expressed their views in a letter to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, noting that the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was also contrary to that of IARC.
“Contrary to EFSA and ECHA, IARC concluded in March 2015 that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans”, the MEPs state in their letter. They add: “… we urge you as President of the European Commission … to take any urgent measure necessary to guarantee the immediate protection of public health – including occupational health – and of the environment, based on Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009” on the placing of plant protection products on the market.
The MEPs recommend that ECHA and EFSA critically revise the validity of the studies used in their evaluations and ask the Commission not to propose renewal of the glyphosate licence until such time as this revision has been carried out.
“If the ‘Monsanto Papers’ teach us one thing, it is that Monsanto does not like science. When studies demonstrated that glyphosate is clastogenic and induces DNA breakages, the employees of this multinational went to work internally to conceal the studies and find other experts whom they paid to exculpate it. The European Union must deliver a firm response and, to protect our environment and our health, refuse to renew authorisation of this substance”, commented MEP Michèle Rivasi (Greens, France), who sits on Parliament’s environment and public health committee. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)