Not content with a five-year extension being granted to Monsanto for its controversial glyphosate, used in the weedkiller, Roundup, the company stated, "Glyphosate has fulfilled all requirements for a full 15-year renewal. There is no scientific basis for approving authorisation for only five years."
EU members states’ ‘experts’ agreed on Monday, November 27th to grant a five-year extension for the herbicide, with 18 votes in favour, nine against and one abstention - Portugal.
Germany's vote in favour of the Monsanto proposal helped the 'yes' votes climb to represent 65.71% of the EU population, just above the 65% needed under the rules.
The nine countries that opposed the five-year licence renewal are Belgium, France, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria and Malta.
The European Commission has now given the go-ahead for a formal renewal of the licence for glyphosate across the EU, which is highly likely to be positive.
The best the health commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, could come up with, despite his knowledge that the chemical is likely to cause cancer and the reports submitted by EU experts were tampered with as sections were lifted from Monsanto documents, was that "Today's vote shows that when we all want to, we are able to share and accept our collective responsibility in decision making."
Germany's decision to support the licence renewal was referred to as “a scandal," by German Green Party MEP, Sven Giegold, adding that the government decision to support the licence renewal was a "slap in the face for the environment and for consumers."
Until last Sunday, the German Greens were in talks to form a government with the CDU of chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the CSU and pro-business FDP. This alliance now is in doubt.
Other leaders were critical of the EU decision with president Emmanuel Macron in France saying that he will ban glyphosate, "as soon as alternatives have been found, or within three years at the latest."
French and Belgian social democrat MEPs, Eric Andrieu and Marc Tarabella, said that "the 28 and the European Commission are guilty of failure to assist persons in danger. The European Commission has to stop the 'ostrich' policy."
One, at least, was happy at the result. Julie Girling from the right wing European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, said she was really pleased for the re-authorisation of the herbicide, "This represents the triumph of common sense in the face of a relentless campaign from some green groups determined to ignore scientific evidence and worry the public unnecessarily."
Hours after the decision was taken, many MEPs expressed anger during a meeting of the environmental and food safety committee which today is voting on an objection to the decision (Tuesday, 28 November, 2017)
Not unsurprisingly, environmental associations have condemned the glyphosate decision, "Five more years of glyphosate will put our health and environment at risk, and is a major setback to more sustainable farming methods," said Adrian Bebb from Friends of the Earth Europe.
Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg , said that the Commission and most governments have chosen "to ignore the warnings of independent scientists, the demands of the European Parliament and the petition calling for a glyphosate ban.”
Some 1.3 million Europeans citizens presented a petition asking the European Union to ban glyphosate, with the petition discussed on 20 November, 2017 in the European parliament.
Even though two EU agencies have said glyphosate is safe, some NGO and environmental activists strongly object, as the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans".
Portugal’s environmental association, Quercus, said the industrial and intensive agriculture lobbies had won the day and that, as ever in the European Union, "business is more important than people and the environment.”
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