Lorraine Chow | June 27, 2016 

Monsanto vs. People Power: EU Glyphosate License Set to Expire June 30

The European Commission failed for a third time last week to secure the support of a majority of EU governments for an extension of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and other herbicides.

Global watchdog group Sum Of Us has collected hundreds of thousands of signatures from concerned citizens seeking a ban on glyphosate in Europe.

EU sources told Reuters that France and Malta voted against the re-approval and seven countries, including Germany, Italy and Austria, abstained.

Objection to the widely used pesticide is based on the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) March 2015 assessment that “probably” causes cancer in humans.

Due to the impasse, the European Commission will now have the final say on whether or not the controversial weedkiller remains on Europe’s shelves. Commissioners are meeting in Brussels today to discuss glyphosate’s fate in Europe.

The clock is ticking as the EU’s current approval of glyphosate is set to expire in three days. If the executives do not extend the license by June 30, manufacturers have six months to phase out glyphosate products.

Media reports indicate that the European Commission will likely settle on a “technical extension” of glyphosate for 12-18 months, an “11th hour” compromise that the commission had already proposed in early June to buy time for yet another study assessing whether or not glyphosate causes cancer.

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Taxonomy

• Water
• Agriculture & Forestry
• Chemicals
• Government
• Industrial