In light of the controversy aroused by renewal of the glyphosate licence for a period of ten years and keen to gain sufficient support among the member states on Wednesday 25 October, on the day after the objection vote in the Parliament (see other article), the European Commission would seem willing to slightly alter its position.
That is what emerged in Strasbourg on Tuesday 24 October from the weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners, at which the health and food safety commissioner briefed his counterparts on the state of play on the issue.
It is certain that there will not be sufficient support to enable the proposal on the table to achieve a qualified majority among the member state experts sitting on the standing committee on plants, animals, food and feed (PAFF committee).
“The Commission has instructed our representative to the committee tomorrow to explore with the member states the terms of a support that would be as broad as possible, also taking into consideration the European Parliament's vote, and the available scientific expertise at European level and internationally. The College asked our representative to explore that the possible broad support is structured around a renewal of five to seven years”, Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas told European press after the meeting of the College.
Renewal for seven years, accompanied by very tight restrictions on use, particularly in parks and gardens and in the period just before harvesting, is what Parliament called for in 2016 when the Commission finally had to opt for a one-year renewal of the licence, until the end of December 2017 at the latest (rather than the the-year renewal it had targeted after giving up on its initial proposal of renewing the licence for a period of 15 years).
This time around, Parliament has voted for a total ban on glyphosate from 15 December 2022, with a five-year transition period and immediate restrictions on use (see other article).
Responding to the press which had asked whether the Commission would submit a fresh proposal and whether a five-year renewal was not different from what the Parliament is advocating, the spokesperson did not wish to go into detail. “We want any decision to have the backing of as big a majority of our member states as possible, and we have given our representative a mandate which has sufficient room for manoeuvre to be able to work towards that. We are in the area of comitology where the member states decide and the Commission assists and facilitates”, he stated. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)