EU Again Delays Decision on Glyphosate
25 October 2017 EU member states have postponed voting on whether to renew the license for glyphosate, the European Commission said on Wednesday, according to an article in the EUObserver.
The EU license for glyphosate is set to expire on Dec. 15.
The EUObserver article stated, “During Wednesday’s (European Commission) meeting, member states exposed their positions, mainly favoring a 5,7 or 10-year renewal. But it appeared that none of them would gather enough support to be adopted.
An EU source said ‘quite a few’ member states were still in favor of a 10-year renewal – and that ‘phasing out’ was not considered, as that fell under different legislation.”
The Commission is expected to set a new date for a vote during the first half of November.
The Commission’s decision to take no vote followed a move the previous day by the European Parliament to adopt non-binding text calling for the phase-out of glyphosate in the coming years, with a compete ban by Dec. 15, 2022.
The European Parliament stated in a press release: “The EU risk assessment process before renewing the substance’s licence was mired in controversy, as the UN cancer agency and EU food safety and chemicals agencies came to different conclusions regarding its safety.
Moreover, the release of the so-called ‘Monsanto Papers’, internal documents from the company which owns and produces Roundup, of which glyphosate is the main active substance, shed doubt on the credibility of some studies used in the EU evaluation on glyphosate safety, say MEPs.”
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