On Tuesday the European Parliament’s Envi Committee (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) appealed to other European legislators, urging them to vote against renewing the license for controversial herbicide glyphosate, which expires in June. The proposed renewal is currently a hotly contested issue in Europe.

An Envi Committee resolution, passed by 38 votes to 6, with 18 abstentions, calls on legislators not to relicense glyphosate for another 15 years without first carrying out an independent and transparent review and disclosing all scientific evidence that went to inform EFSA’s review of the herbicide last year.

On Monday the European Greens called for the release of ‘secret studies’, which formed a key part of the evidence leading EU food safety watchdog EFSA and the World Health Organisation’s cancer research arm IARC to reach different conclusions on whether glyphosate presents a risk of cancer in humans last year. Pro-transparency groups have questioned the claim that the studies contain commercially sensitive material, as glyphosate is now off patent and most of its manufacturers are members of the Glyphosate Task Force, which supplied the studies to EFSA.

In March 2015, IARC classified glyphosate herbicides as being “probably carcinogenic to humans,” whereas an EFSA review carried out later in the year reached the opposite conclusion. since then, there has been tension between scientists from the two agencies, and on Monday the Greens submitted a freedom of information request in a bid to see the studies published.

In addition to these studies, the results of separate research into glyphosate initiated by the European Commission are unlikely to have been returned by June. Alongside the continued difference of opinion between EFSA and IARC, this led a number of member states to request that discussions on relicensing glyphosate be postponed ahead of a planned Council vote earlier in the month.  

Pavel Poc, Vice Chair of the Envi Committee, who organised a debate on glyphosate by scientists from EFSA and IARC in the Parliament, commented, ”The fact that we have to resort to a parliamentary objection shows that something has gone wrong in the decision process.”

"Glyphosate has been classified as probably carcinogenic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While the industry claimed that the substance can be completely metabolised, it is now clear that glyphosate residues are everywhere: in the environment, in many products we consume every day, in our bodies", he continued, pointing to studies showing that residues of the herbicide have been detected in Europeans’ breast milk and urine.

Turning to the Commission’s proposed licensing renewal, Poc said, "Will the European Commission and EFSA publish the studies on which their proposal is based? Why propose authorising glyphosate for another 15 years, the longest period possible? We need those studies to be made public, and we should wait until we have them. Any uncertainty must be avoided before proceeding with the approval of a substance that is so broadly used. That is how precautionary principle should be applied.”, he concluded.

The Committee’s resolution, which calls on the EU Executive to table new proposals on glyphosate and asks that the EU Food and Veterinary Office be allowed to monitor glyphosate residues in foods and drinks, will be voted on by the European Parliament as a whole next month.