News Crop protection
Deadline for glyphosate to July 2023
The European food watchdog EFSA has postponed the renewal of the license for glyphosate to July 2023. The organization has been inundated with nearly 2.800 responses to the herbicide's dossier that more time is needed to treat all of them. The glyphosate license actually expired at the end of this year.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) makes today (Tuesday 10 May) known that she needs more time to re-evaluate glyphosate. In fact, the license for glyphosate in the EU will expire in December 2022. EFSA will probably extend the deadline to July next year. All member states will then have to vote whether they want to allow glyphosate in the EU. Previously, this happened for a period of five years, instead of the usual ten years.
3.000 pages of information
The previous reports received 2.400 responses from EU member states and the Glyphosate Renewal Group (GRG) and 368 responses from public consultation to EFSA. In total, there are about 3.000 pages of information to go through. This is done by the GRG and the Assessment Group on Glyphosate (AGG). The latter consists of four member states: the Netherlands, France, Hungary and Sweden. The license renewal proposal (dRAR) is now being amended by these parties.
The AGG informs EFSA that it expects to have its modified dRAR ready for submission by the end of September. Subsequently, EFSA and the chemical authority ECHA can discuss this with the Member States in November and December of this year. It expects to be able to make a final decision on the renewal of the license in July 2023. This lists all possible risks of exposure to glyphosate for humans, animals and the environment.
Positive, but…
During an earlier report by the AGG, the group was positive about renewal of the license. That does not prevent individual member states from drawing up their own plan about the use of the much-discussed drug. Germany is working to ban it and France is also working on it. If these countries remain negative in the mood in Brussels, then that is an unavoidable hurdle for glyphosate. On the other hand, proponents hope for common sense and thorough reporting on which to decide.
Niels van der Boom
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