EU postpones decision on glyphosate

"At the conclusion of the meeting, no vote was taken," she said.

The licence for glyphosate, used commercially in a Monsanto product called Roundup, is due to expire at the end of the year.

Although two EU agencies have recommended it as safe, environmental and health activists have turned against the proposal to renew the licence, in part because the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans".

A previous attempt to renew the licence for fifteen years failed to reach a majority of support among EU member states, following which the commission proposed a 10-year renewal.

On Tuesday (24 October), the European Parliament adopted a non-binding text calling for the phase-out of glyphosate in the coming years, with a compete ban by 2022.

Shortly after the vote, the commission announced it would propose a licence period of five to seven years.

During Wednesday's meeting, member states exposed their positions, mainly favouring a 5,7 or 10-year renewal. But it appeared that none of them would gather enough support to be adopted.

An EU source said "quite a few" member states were still in favour of a 10-year renewal - and that 'phasing out' was not considered, as that fell under different legislation.

Some national representatives said they needed to talk more with their government.


"The commission took note of the positions of the different delegations of member states upon which it will now reflect and will announce the date of the next meeting shortly," Paduraru said.

The meeting will most likely take place in the first half of November. The EU needs to take a decision before 15 December, when the current licence ends.

Ahead of the vote, Greenpeace had already criticised the commission's compromise proposal.

"What matters is how much glyphosate is used and how it's used, not how long the licence is for," the campaign group said in a press release.

"The European Parliament and Europeans want a ban, not a fudge that changes nothing about how much people are exposed and how much the environment is contaminated," Greenpeace added.