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Food Safety

Earlier assessment of glyphosate

Glyphosate has been thoroughly assessed in the European Union by Member States, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) - to establish whether its use results in any unacceptable effects on human and animal health or the environment.

  • 2002: following such an assessment, glyphosate was first approved according to EU rules on pesticides. Before this time it was authorised for use in Member States according to national rules in place at the time.
  • Between 2012 and 2015: a comprehensive scientific assessment was carried out by the Member States and EFSA according to the rules for renewal of active substance approvals to confirm that glyphosate complies with the new approval criteria laid down in the 2009 EU pesticides legislation, taking into account the latest scientific and technical knowledge. EFSA published its conclusion – that "glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans" - following this assessment in October 2015.
  • Early 2016: the Commission proposed to the Member States to renew the approval of glyphosate but there was insufficient support either in favour or against the proposal. Given the diverging opinions between the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, an agency of the World Health Organization) and EFSA on the potential carcinogenicity of glyphosate, it was considered appropriate to ask the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to assess the hazard properties of the substance before taking a decision on its potential renewal at EU level.
  • 29 June 2016: the Commission called for a vote on the renewal proposal, but no majority of Member States either supported or opposed the renewal. The Commission then adopted an extension of the approval of glyphosate for a limited period to allow the European Chemicals Agency to conduct its assessment of the potential carcinogenicity of glyphosate.

This extension was limited to 6 months after the receipt of the European Chemicals Agency's opinion or 31 December 2017 at the latest.

Member States also voted in favour of amending the conditions of the existing approval of glyphosate in July 2016, adding further restrictions to ensure the highest safety standards for humans and the environment.

The Commission's decision established three conditions for further use of glyphosate in the Member States, as the actual decisions concerning the authorisation of plant protection products containing approved substances for use in their territories are the responsibility of Member States:

  • Ban a dangerous co-formulant called POE-tallowamine from glyphosate-based products
  • Minimise the use in public spaces, such as parks, public playgrounds and gardens
  • Scrutinise the pre-harvest use of glyphosate

The European Chemicals Agency sent its opinion to the European Commission on 15 June 2017. Therefore, the earlier approval of glyphosate was to expire on 15 December 2017.

European Chemicals Agency's conclusions

On 15 March 2017, the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency concluded by consensus that:

  • There is no evidence to link glyphosate to cancer in humans, based on the available information
  • Glyphosate should not be classified as a substance that causes genetic damage (mutagen) or disrupts reproduction.

The same conclusion was also reached by the following organisations:

The International Agency for Research on Cancer remains, therefore, the only agency with a divergent view.

Commission's 2017 proposal to the Member States

On 16 May 2017 the Commission agreed that the discussions with the Member States about the possible renewal of the approval of glyphosate could restart. The Commission proposed a renewal of the approval of glyphosate for 10 years.

On 20 July 2017 the Commission restarted the discussions with Member States. The proposal put forward by the Commission included:

  • Specific provisions that Member States have to take into account when considering applications for glyphosate-based products, namely:
    • protection of groundwater
    • protection of terrestrial animals and non-target plants
  • Certain elements that Member States must ensure during assessment and decision making for authorisation (e.g. use in public areas should be minimised)
  • The ban of POE-tallowamine (a 'co-formulant' that was previously used in glyphosate-based products) that was put in place in 2016

On 5-6 October 2017 a further round of discussions with the Member States took place. The Commission made available to the Member States an updated version of the proposal that took into account the EFSA Conclusion on the potential endocrine disrupting properties of glyphosate that was published on 7 September 2017.

On 25 October 2017 the Commission held another round of discussions with the Member States on the proposal for the renewal of approval of glyphosate for 10 years at the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed. All Member States took the floor and expressed their views on which the Commission took note.

On 9 November 2017 at the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, Member States voted on the Commission's proposal (revision 3) for the renewal of approval of glyphosate for 5 years. The Committee delivered a no opinion on this proposal (see minutes of the meeting below for further details).

On 27 November 2017 a qualified majority in favour of the proposal by the European Commission to renew the approval of glyphosate for a period of 5 years was reached by the Appeal Committee. Some modifications were made to the draft Implementing Regulation during the meeting (see revision 4 below for the text voted in the Appeal Committee).

Committee's meetings

19-20 July 2017: Extract from the Summary Report of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed meeting - Section Phytopharmaceuticals - Plant Protection Products

5 -6 October 2017: Extract from the Summary Report of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed meeting - Section Phytopharmaceuticals - Plant Protection Products

25 October 2017: Summary report of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed - Section Phytopharmaceuticals - Plant Protection Products - Legislation

9 November 2017: Summary report of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed - Section Phytopharmaceuticals - Plant Protection Products - Legislation

27 November 2017: Summary report of the Appeal Committee

European Citizens' Initiative on glyphosate

On Friday 6 October 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).