The European Parliament is to set up a special committee to look into the EU’s authorisation procedure for pesticides in response to concerns raised about the risk posed by the herbicide substance glyphosate. The herbicide had its marketing licence renewed by EU member states for five years in November last year.

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The special committee is to assess:

• the authorisation procedure for pesticides in the EU;
• potential failures in how substances are scientifically evaluated and approved;
• the role of the European Commission in renewing the glyphosate licence;
• possible conflicts of interest in the approval procedure;
• the role of EU agencies, and whether they are adequately staffed and financed to fulfil their obligations.

The term of the special committee, which will have 30 members, is to be nine months from its first meeting. It will deliver a final report of its factual findings and recommendations, to be approved by the full House.The mandate was adopted by show of hands. The full House will vote on the composition of the special committee on Thursday.

Conservative MEPs leader Ashley Fox condemned the move saying:

“MEP’s are turning pesticides into a political football...

“Establishing this unnecessary committee, while not changing December's decision on glyphosate, is only going to undermine the trust of our farmers and businesses."

Ska Keller, Philippe Lamberts, co-chair of Parliament’s Greens/EFA group, said in a statement that through this committee, their group will seek “to analyse the failings in the process that led to the renewal of the authorisation of glyphosate.”

Co-incidentally Germany’s draft coalition deal agreed this week includes a goal of ending use of the weed-killer glyphosate within the country but gives no time frame.

In a resolution voted on in October, Parliament stated that the release of the so-called “Monsanto Papers”, internal documents from the company which owns and produces Roundup®, of which glyphosate is the main active substance, shed doubt on the credibility of some studies used in the EU evaluation on glyphosate safety, say MEPs.

The EU’s authorisation procedure, including the scientific evaluation of substances, should be based only on published, peer-reviewed and independent studies commissioned by competent public authorities, MEPs said. EU agencies should be beefed up in order to allow them to work in this way.