EU member states fail to reach agreement on extension of glyphosate permit: new vote next month | Abroad

The Commission had proposed last month to extend the authorization for glyphosate for ten years, but a meeting of experts from the 27 Member States on Friday showed that the required qualified majority (55 percent of Member States representing 65 percent of the EU population) was not met. available to support or reject the proposal.

The proposal received a lot of support in the south and east of Europe. Austria and Luxembourg had made it clear that they would vote against the extension. However, the decisive factor was the heavyweights Germany and France, who, like Belgium and the Netherlands, opted for abstention.

As in Germany, the Belgian abstention is related to the persistent disagreement among the coalition partners. Federal Deputy Prime Minister of Green Petra De Sutter expressed herself on Friday as “extremely satisfied that there will be no new permit for glyphosate for the time being”. “I continue to argue that the Commission now also introduces a total ban. There are too many indications that it is harmful to ourselves and our nature. The Superior Health Council also advocates phasing out.”

The division among the Member States does not in any way mean that the proposal has been scrapped. In November, member states will vote again in an appeals committee. If they do not reach the required majority there either, the Commission can take its own decision by December 14. The Commission can also decide at any time to adapt its proposal to include more Member States behind an extension.

The current authorization for glyphosate came into force in December 2017 and runs until December 15, 2023, after being extended for a year at the end of last year because the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) needed more time to review all available scientific studies and insights. analyze. According to EFSA, that analysis did not reveal any major concerns. The Commission did include a number of precautionary measures in its proposal, such as buffer zones around land treated with glyphosate in agricultural areas.

Whether an active substance can be admitted to the market is decided at European level. The individual member states then decide on the authorization for specific products – such as Roundup from chemical company Bayer. Due to the uncertainty about the harmful effects of glyphosate on humans and the environment, a ban on the sale of the substance to and its use by private individuals has been in force in Belgium for a number of years.