"Just as with the standing committee, this appeal body works with qualified majorities, meaning that the only way to block the authorisation renewal is with a qualified majority of member states actively voting against the proposal.
EU countries did not meet the required qualified majority to approve the European Commission’s proposed 10-year extension for the use of the contentious herbicide glyphosate, with the next crucial vote to be held in the first half of November.
The EU executive submitted to member states a draft regulation in September foreseeing the renewed approval of glyphosate – the most widely used herbicide in the EU – for the EU market beyond 15 December this year, when the current approval expires.
Diplomatic sources confirmed to Euractiv that member states voting against were Austria, Luxembourg, and Croatia, while Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands, and France abstained.
According to the rules of procedures, abstentions are counted as a no for the approval of a regulation but do not contribute to forming the qualified majority against the proposal.
Since there was no sufficient majority – requiring 15 out of 27 member states and representing at least 65% of the total EU population – neither in favour nor against the proposal, the EU executive decided to submit the proposal to the appeal committee, which will once again examine the proposal in the first half of November.
Just as with the standing committee, this appeal body works with qualified majorities, meaning that the only way to block the authorisation renewal is with a qualified majority of member states actively voting against the proposal.
If there is still no qualified majority either in favour or against at this stage, the Commission is tasked with deciding on its own, on the basis of the elements at its disposal.
“For now, taking into account that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the many colleagues from the many different states have ploughed through enormous amounts of scientific data, we believe that we have a good proposal,” a Commission spokesperson told journalists on Friday (13 November).
In the event the process is not concluded before 15 December – when the current approval expires – an EU official previously explained to Euractiv that the EU executive would automatically temporarily extend the current agreement, as it has done once before.
Some countries have recently asked to bring about changes to the Commission’s proposal – for instance, France would like to reduce the approval of the substance to seven years instead of 10.
“The text that was voted on today in the committee will be the same text that will go to the appeal committee,” the Commission spokesperson said.
According to another EU spokesperson, the Commission already made some changes to the proposal between 22 September and 5 October mainly involving the protection of groundwater and surface water to refer to vulnerable areas, as well as strengthening the protection of small herbivorous mammals.
The chair of the European Parliament’s environment committee, Pascal Canfin, a liberal lawmaker close to French President Emmanuel Macron, called on the Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen “to modify this unacceptable proposal”,
in a post on X.
The EU farmers’ association Copa-Cogeca “takes note of the outcome of this vote, while calling on member states to assume their responsibilities,” the lobby said in a note to the press.
EU farmers also stressed that “there is as of yet no equivalent alternative to this herbicide, and without it, many agricultural practices, notably soil conservation, would be rendered complex, leaving farmers with no solutions.
Campaigner group PAN Europe welcomed the failure to reach the qualified majority for the reapproval of glyphosate. “This is an important signal. It does right to the concerns of a majority of Europeans about the impact of pesticides on health and the environment,” commented Gergely Simon, PAN Europe’s senior policy officer
Green Irish MEP Grace O’Sullivan also hailed the news. “I understand that the vote was tight so we need to redouble our efforts to convince ministers for agriculture, including our own, to end the use of glyphosate once and for all,” she said.
