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Food, Farming, Fisheries
Food Safety

Glyphosate

Status of glyphosate in the EU

Glyphosate is currently approved as an active substance in the EU until 15 December 2033 and its use is subject to certain conditions and restrictions.

Until that date, Plant Protection Products (PPPs) containing glyphosate can be authorised by national authorities following a full evaluation of their safety and efficacy.

Questions and Answers

What is Glyphosate?

Glyphosate:

  • is a chemical substance contained in Plant Protection Products (‘pesticide’) that are used in agriculture and horticulture as a herbicide to control undesired plants (‘weeds’)
  • is one of the most used and the most extensively studied pesticides in the world.

Plant Protection Products (PPPs) containing glyphosate:

  • are typically applied before crops are sown to control weeds and therefore facilitate better growth of crops by eliminating competing plants
  • eliminate or limit the use of ploughing machines, which reduces soil erosion and carbon emissions, because weeds can be removed without moving the soil (as zero-tillage farming)
  • may also be used in garden care and forestry
  • may be used in non-cultivated areas such as railways to ensure the safety of the train traffic
  • is sometimes used as a pre-harvest treatment to regulate plant growth and ripening; however, uses for desiccation to control the time point of harvest or to optimise threshing are not permitted in the EU.

Why was the approval of glyphosate renewed in 2023?

Glyphosate has been assessed 3 times in the EU. The first assessment resulted in initial approval of glyphosate in the EU in July 2002. The second assessment, which was carried out between 2012 and 2017, led to the first renewal of approval.

The most recent assessment was carried out between 2019 and 2023 by Member State Competent Authorities, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and showed that there is currently no scientific or legal justification for a ban. This led to the renewal of approval of glyphosate in 2023.

Under the conditions of approval and by following good agricultural practices, glyphosate is considered not to pose any harmful effects on human health or unacceptable effects on the environment.

The EU approval does not allow its indiscriminate use. Member States:

  • are responsible for the authorisation and use on their territories of plant protection products containing active substances.
  • must ensure that the conditions and restrictions set in the EU approval of glyphosate are followed and may implement further conditions and restrictions as appropriate.

The Commission can review the approval of glyphosate at any time, if scientifically valid evidence shows that the approval criteria laid down in EU law are no longer met.

If producers wish to renew the approval beyond 15 December 2033, they must submit an application for renewal by 15 December 2030 at the latest, in accordance with the rules on the renewal of approval of active substances (Implementing Regulation 2020/1740).

Will the carcinogenicity study carried out by the Ramazzini Institute as part of their Global Glyphosate Study (GGS) be examined by EFSA and ECHA?

The Commission is aware of the publication of 10 June 2025 in the journal Environmental Health of some of the results of a study on glyphosate undertaken by the Ramazzini Institute as part of their Global Glyphosate Study (GGS).

The Commission has mandated the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to ask the study authors to provide all raw data without delay, and when the data will be received, to conduct a robust and thorough scientific evaluation as to whether the new information, considered alongside all other available data, changes their previous conclusions concerning the hazard (ECHA) or risk assessment (EFSA) conducted for glyphosate.

This work will be carried out based on the relevant procedures of the agencies.

ECHA already concluded two times (in 2017 and 2022) that based on the available information, including animal data and human epidemiological data, and using a weight of evidence approach, no classification for carcinogenicity is warranted for glyphosate. Therefore the new information by itself does not immediately call into question the outcomes of the previous reviews.

If, in the light of a review of the new information, ECHA or EFSA would confirm that glyphosate does no longer meet the approval criteria in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 or indicate that the conditions of approval should be amended, the Commission will act immediately to amend or withdraw the approval, as appropriate.

European Citizens' Initiative on glyphosate (2017)

On Friday 6 October 2017 the European Commission officially received the submission of the 4th successful European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). By supporting the 'Stop Glyphosate' European Citizens' Initiative, over 1 million citizens from at least 7 Member States have called on the European Commission "to propose to Member States a ban on glyphosate, to reform the pesticide approval procedure, and to set EU-wide mandatory reduction targets for pesticide use".

The European Commission met with the organisers on 23 October 2017.

The organisers presented the citizens’ initiative at a public hearing in the European Parliament on 20 November 2017.

12 December 2017: the Commission adopted its response to the ECI (also see Annex).