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A European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Ban glyphosate and protect people and the environment from toxic pesticides’, calling for an EU wide ban on the herbicide, a reform of the pesticide approval procedure and EU-wide mandatory reduction targets for pesticide use, collected more than 1 million signatures.

As a result the petitioners and the European Commission held a debate yesterday ( 20^th November) where the above issues were discussed in the public hearing which was organized by the Environment, Petitions,Industry and Agriculture committees.

The debate included representatives of the Citizen’s Committee, which drafted and proposed the ECI, and Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis among the participants.

Representing the ECI Mika Leandro cited a 2015 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report which concluded glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen”.

Efsa [European Food Safety Authority], ECHA [European Chemicals Agency] and the WHO [World Health Organization] did not agree with the IARC that glyphosate is carcinogenic.

They cited the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI), whose recent published results of a major study found there was “no association between glyphosate”, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s popular herbicide RoundUp, “and any solid tumors or lymphoid malignancies overall, including non-Hogkin Lymphoma (NHL) and its subtypes.”

Parliament rejected a ten-year renewal of glyphosate’s licence in October and proposed a full ban by 2022. EU member states will vote on a five-year renewal on 27 November.