Glyphosate approval – Parliament’s ENVI Committee Objects

22 March, 2016 Oliver Moore Latest from Brussels, Main stories

The European Commission “should not renew the approval of the herbicide substance glyphosate on the EU market.”

(c) Oliver Moore WHES2016 Glyphosate
(c) Oliver Moore WHES2016 Glyphosate

That’s according to the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, which objects to the Commission’s plans to approve the controversial substance in June of this year, for a further 15 years.

The resolution passed today – despite the terror attacks – by 38 votes to 6, with 18 abstentions. In  a statement the  Committee said “So long as serious concerns remain about the carcinogenicity and endocrine disruptive properties of the herbicide glyphosate, which is used in hundreds of farm, forestry, urban and garden applications, the EU Commission should not renew its authorisation. Instead, it should commission an independent review and disclose all the scientific evidence that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) used to assess glyphosate, said Environment Committee MEPs on Tuesday. ”  

Next Steps  

The motion for a resolution will be put to a vote at the 11-14 April plenary session in Strasbourg.

National experts sitting in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (Phytopharmaceuticals Section) will vote to adopt or reject the Commission proposal by qualified majority in May. If there is no such majority, it will be up to the European Commission to decide.

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Oliver Moore
About Oliver Moore 178 Articles
DR. Oliver Moore is the communications director and editor-in-chief with ARC2020. He has a PhD in the sociology of farming and food, where he specialised in organics and direct sales. He is published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. A weekly columnist and contributor with Irish Examiner, he is a regular on Countrywide (Irish farm radio show on the national broadcaster RTE 1) and engages in other communications work around agri-food and rural issues, such as with the soil, permaculture, climate change adaptation and citizen science initiative Grow Observatory . He lectures part time in the Centre for Co-operative Studies UCC
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