PAN (Pesticide Action Network) Europe, a group of NGOs that seeks to stop the use synthetic pesticides, will go the European Court of Justice to overturn a European Commission decision not to review the approval of glyphosate.
Last November the commission adopted a regulation that renews approval of glyphosate for plant protection purposes for 10 years in the EU.
The commission made this decision as EU member states could not agree whether to renew or reject the approval of the product.
Glyphosate is a chemical substance used in a number of herbicide products and its use in Europe is now approved until 2033. However, it has been widely claimed that the chemical can cause cancer, with some courts in the US ruling in favour of plaintiffs that took cases against glyphosate product producers.
It is understood that individual member states retain the power to decide for themselves not to authorise glyphosate in their own jurisdictions.
PAN Europe announced after the commission’s decision that it would try to reverse it, and this week, the commission rejected the network’s request to review the approval. PAN Europe said it will challenge that rejection. It has two months to file a formal court challenge.
In January, a number of member NGOs associated with PAN Europe, along with some other groups, sent a formal request for internal review to the European Commission.
They asked to revise the reapproval of glyphosate, claiming that there were “numerous flaws” in the work of the EU agencies, namely the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
These groups also claimed that the European Commission disregarded a series of “data gaps” identified by the EFSA.
Commenting on the commission’s decision not to review its approval of glyphosate, Angeliki Lyssimachou, head of science and policy at PAN Europe said: “The commission’s reply is unacceptable. People and the environment are exposed to glyphosate on a daily basis.
“Independent research and data from the pesticide industry itself shows that glyphosate pesticides can cause harm to humans and the environment. This should lead to their ban under EU law. Yet the EFSA, the ECHA and the European Commission persist in downplaying these facts,” Lyssimachou claimed.
The formal process of challenging the approval of glyphosate, if successful, would last approximately two years.