EU countries fail to agree on 10-year extension for glyphosate use

Several member states, including France, abstained in a vote on Friday in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF), following two-day technical discussions in Brussels.

With no qualified majority either for or against the proposal, an appeal committee will now reconsider the Commission’s text, with a second vote due to take place in the first half of November.

A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed on Friday that “dialogue” can still take place between member states in order to reach a compromise. Many capitals have expressed concerns about the powerful herbicide’s impact on biodiversity and human health.

If a qualified majority is not achieved in November, the Commission will take a final decision on the renewal.

In September, the EU executive recommended renewing the approval of glyphosate use in the EU market for a further 10 years beyond its expiry date of 15 December this year, after the bloc’s food safety agency EFSA found “no critical areas of concern” in a July assessment.

But EU officials recognised that the EFSA analysis included data gaps and had failed to reach conclusions on certain aspects, including for consumer diets.

Glyphosate has been a source of controversy since the World Health Organization’s cancer agency concluded in 2015 that it was probably carcinogenic to humans.

Earlier this week, Euronews spoke to Sabine Grataloup, whose son Théo was born with severe malformations after he was exposed to a glyphosate-based weed killer while in his mother’s womb.

In an attempt to convince member states, the European Commission had sought to introduce “risk mitigation measures” including buffer strips of ten meters around sprayed areas and the use of specific nozzles to reduce “spray drift”. 

Austria and Luxembourg had previously announced they would oppose the renewal. Luxembourg is the only EU country to have temporarily banned the substance in the past.

The Dutch Agriculture Minister Piet Adema had confirmed the Netherlands would abstain in the vote, explaining its “nuanced position” would not be “done justice by a vote for or against” the proposal.

In September, the German agriculture minister warned of the threats of glyphosate to biodiversity and stressed the need for a coordinated phase-out at European level.

NGO Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, which had fiercely criticised the Commission’s proposed renewal, welcomed member states’ decision to delay the decision. 

“This is an important signal. It does right to the concerns of a majority of Europeans about the impact of pesticides on health and environment,” Gergely Simon, Senior Policy Officer at PAN Europe, said.

 “A wide range of independent scientists have expressed their concerns and their studies show serious negative effects of glyphosate use. Re-approval of glyphosate breaches the EU Pesticide Law, under which health and environment should come first. In case of doubt, the precautionary principle must be invoked,” he added.