A planned vote on the future of glyphosate - the world’s most widely used herbicide - has been postponed after several EU member states announced their intention to vote against a 15 year relicensing of the controversial herbicide unless the EU Commission agreed to postpone a vote on the renewal.

Until last week, member states’ ministers on the Council had been expected to wave through Commission proposals for a renewal, as the current license on glyphosate expires in June. However, on Friday French environment minister Segolene Royale announced that the French government would vote against relicensing, citing public pressure and concerns over the potential health impacts of glyphosate. Royale’s announcement was followed on Saturday by statements from the governments of Sweden and the Netherlands, both of whom disavowed risk assessment findings published by Commission Watchdog EFSA last year.

EFSA’s opinion - that glyphosate is unlikely to be a human carcinogen - ran contrary to earlier findings by the World Health Organisation’s cancer research arm, IARC. Since then there has been a war of words between prominent figures in the two scientific bodies, and questions have been raised about the transparency and scope of EFSA’s assessment.

On Tuesday, Italy, one of the states whose representatives had yet to declare their voting intentions, came out against the Commission’s proposals and the vote was postponed. The Netherlands has asked that voting be put off until outstanding scientific results have been returned; the Commission has tasked pesticide manufacturers with providing evidence that glyphosate does not affect humans’ hormone systems (endocrine disruption) by August, and The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is also investigating the human health effects of the herbicide, Results from the ECHA investigation are not expected before 2017.

If ECHA finds that glyphosate can cause cancer, interfere with reproduction or damage the hormone system, then it can no longer be sold, according to EU law.

In the run-up to this week’s council meeting, the Commission made some conciliatory moves, including suggesting there could be changes to the pesticide testing regime, and promising the executive would begin working with member states to draw up a list of co-formulants that have caused concern.

Though agchem company representatives expressed disappointment that council ministers had been influenced by civil society groups and the EU Parliament’s Environment Committee on Tuesday, Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg commented, “Rushing to grant a new licence now, without waiting for an evaluation by Europe’s chemical agency, would be like skydiving without checking your equipment first. As long as there is conflicting scientific advice, glyphosate should not be approved for use in the EU. And countries would be better advised to do without it.”