Glyphosate - ban in Europe?

The far most used pesticides contain glyphosate and it persists in soil as a new study found out. © Pixabay

The EU Parliament yesterday voted by a large majority for an expiry of the approval of the herbicide glyphosate by 2022. Parliamentarians thus clearly opposed the Commission's proposal for a ten-year extension.

The prolongation of the authorization of the pesticide glyphosate is now a real thriller for many. The Parliament voted against a ten-year extension very clearly but voted for a compromise of five years of transitional period until the complete withdrawal.

Today the representatives of the national governments meet in the Standing Committee for advice. Martin Häusling Green MEP said: "It is a success of civil society that the end of glyphosate is in sight. On Monday, he was already twittering, "Glyphosat - the wind changes." He said: "It would be a scandal if the governments would prolong the authorization of Glyphosat for ten years."

Towards the end of Glyphosat

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament had even said last week that the permit should be phased out within the next three years. But like Parliament's vote, this is not binding on the Commission. Now it is up to the government representatives of the big EU countries to finally banish the pesticide from Europe's fields.

France's Agrarian Minister Nicolas Hulot, with his determined "no" to the 10 years Glyphosat new extension brought move into the debate, wrote the Green pesticide and glyphosate expert Harald Ebner. However, Ebner does not, in principle, see any legitimacy for a three-year or even five-year phase-out phase: "In view of new reports on Monsanto's practices for risk-mitigation, there are no legitimations for three additional glyphosate years." As long as there is no comprehensive independent investigation and re-evaluation of the substance, the EU states and the European Commission could not go through new registrations, Ebner said with an appeal to the managing federal German government: "It has to do everything to ensure that glyphosate is not allowed further."