The European Commission rejected, on Wednesday 26 June, the request from PAN Europe and five of its partners for an internal review of the European Commission’s decision to renew the authorisation of glyphosate for ten years (implementing regulation 2023/2660). In a press release issued on Thursday 27 June, the NGOs said they would challenge the decision by taking legal action.
PAN Europe submitted its request in January (see EUROPE 13336/4), pointing to “numerous shortcomings in the work of EU agencies, namely the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)”.
The risk assessment of pesticides carried out by EFSA andECHA is “flawed with regard to carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption and toxicity to insects and amphibians”, according to PAN Europe, ClientEarth, Générations futures, Global 2000, PAN Germany and PAN Netherlands.
As a result, these NGOs claim that the EU authorities are “not in compliance with the EU ‘Pesticides’ Regulation” (1107/2009), which “gives priority to health and the environment over economic interests”, PAN Europe Executive Director Martin Dermine told Agence Europe in November 2023 (see EUROPE 13285/5). The Commission is criticised for “systematically” disregarding the “conclusions of independent scientific studies”.
Margriet Matingh, President of PAN Netherlands, regrets that the Commission is not looking into the “potential air pollution” caused by pesticides. In so doing, the Commission is ignoring “the main source of chronic exposure of residents and farmers through inhalation of glyphosate linked to particles”.
To see the EU’s ‘Pesticides’ Regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/cus
And the Commission regulation re-authorising glyphosate: https://aeur.eu/f/cut (Original version in French by Florent Servia)