Meeting in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF), Member States experts did not achieve the qualified majority required to approve or reject the European Commission’s proposal. France and Germany abstained.
“The Commission regrets that Member States were unable to support its proposal despite the clear legal obligation to extend approval. The Commission intends to submit the proposal to the Appeals Committee shortly”, commented a Commission official on Monday 17 October. “It invites those Member States that opposed the proposal, or abstained, to reconsider their position”, he added.
The Commission submitted the proposal after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) had decided last 10 May to postpone by one year its final opinion on the evaluation of this highly controversial pesticide (see EUROPE 12950/14, 12967/23).
In May, the NGO PAN Europe (Pesticide Action Network), had warned the EU institution against this possibility of an extension (see EUROPE 12950/14) for a pesticide already recognised as a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the time of its previous renewal, for 5 years, until 15 December 2022. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)