EU countries fail to agree on extending glyphosate approval
European Union governments failed on Friday to give a decisive opinion on a proposal to extend by 10 years EU approval for the use of glyphosate, Reuters reports.
A "qualified majority" of 15 countries representing at least 65% of the bloc's population had been required either to support or to block the proposal.
The European Commission said in a statement there was no qualified majority either way in a vote by a committee of the EU's 27 members. EU governments will try again in the first half of November when another failure to produce a clear opinion would leave the decision with the European Commission.
A decision is needed by December 14 as the current approval expires the following day.
The previous time glyphosate's licence came up for re-approval, the EU gave it a five-year extension after EU countries twice failed to support a 10-year period.
The World Health Organization's cancer research agency concluded in 2015 that glyphosate was probably carcinogenic to humans, but other agencies around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Chemicals Agency, have classified glyphosate as non-carcinogenic.
Bayer has said decades of studies have shown it is safe and the chemical has been widely used by farmers, or to clear weeds from railway lines for decades.
