Ending a year-and-a-half of indecision, EU nations voted for a five-year extension of its license of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world. Germany was pivotal in reaching the qualified majority – 55 percent of EU nations with at least 65 percent of EU population – for passage with France, the largest EU agricultural producer, opposing the extension, said online newspaper EU Observer.
French president Emmanuel Macron said he would ban glyphosate “as soon as alternatives have been found, or within three years at the latest.” Use of glyphosate was debated heatedly in Europe, and worldwide, following its classification, by the WHO cancer agency in 2015, as probably carcinogenic to humans. A month ago, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a five-year phaseout of glyphosate, forcing EU administrators to drop the idea of a 10-year renewal. The current license expires in mid-December.
Monsanto, which sparked agricultural biotechnology by developing GMO crops that tolerate doses of glyphosate, tweeted that there was no reason for a renewal of “only five years. Glyphosate has fulfilled all requirements for a full 15-year renewal.” Monsanto has defended the safety of glyphosate.
“Today’s vote shows that when we all want to, we are able to share and accept our collective responsibility in decision making,” said EU health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. The vote on the renewal was 18-9 with one abstention. Voting against the renewal were Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Malta, said the EU Observer.