NGOs take legal action against Commission over reauthorisation of glyphosate

Six European NGOs and five in France announced on Thursday (25 January) they had filed two separate requests to the European Commission for an “internal review”, the first step of a legal challenge, over the recent reapproval of the contentious but widely used weedkiller glyphosate.

On top of the requests for internal review, the French NGOs also demand the annulment of the re-approval of the glyphosate decision. The European Commission has until the end of June to reply, after which the NGOs will proceed with court action.

In December, the Commission renewed for another 10 years the licence for the controversial herbicide, after EU member states failed to reach a majority for or against the re-authorisation.

The Pesticide Action Network, together with the lawyers of ClientEarth and other organisations say that the two EU bodies providing scientific advice for the decision – the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) – “have not paid sufficient heed to the science”, the NGOs said in a press release. 

The Commission, the statement added, “has acted against EU law on approval of pesticides and the precautionary principle, re-approving glyphosate despite evidence that the substance can cause harm to humans, animals and the environment”. 

In particular, the NGOs accuse ECHA of having “failed to prove that glyphosate is not genotoxic”, while “non-industry studies based on the most sensitive tests show that the herbicide is in fact genotoxic”. 

the Helsinki-based ECHA replied in an email to Euractiv that ​​”all available evidence was carefully examined to arrive at the conclusion that glyphosate is not carcinogenic or genotoxic” and “no important findings were dismissed”. 

EFSA, for its part, also stressed in an email that “the risk assessment and peer review for glyphosate was the most comprehensive and transparent assessment of a pesticide that EFSA and the EU member states have ever carried out, and EFSA stands firmly behind its conclusions”.

The Commission “will respond to the call for an internal review in line with its legal requirements and thoroughly analyse the claims”, the Commission spokesperson Stefan de Keersmaecker told Euractiv.

He recalled that the scientific advice on glyphosate “is the result of a thorough and stringent process that started in December 2019 with the work of a group of member states – France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden – designated as Rapporteur member states”. 

“It also took into account all available information, both mandatory regulatory studies required by the EU law and a huge body of published scientific literature,” de Keersmaecker concluded.

The French initiative

In France, the legal action is led by the NGOs network Secret Toxique, together with other national associations such as the farmers’ organisation Confédération Paysanne. 

“By challenging the legality of glyphosate’s re-approval, we wish to enshrine in European jurisprudence that no pesticide active substance can be approved without real assessments of the long-term toxicity of the representative formulation”, Secret Toxique said in a press release.

The organisations also call for the annulment of the re-approval of glyphosate.

The procedure

The Commission has 16 weeks to reply, which can be extend to 22 weeks. NGOs then have two months and 10 days to challenge the reply before the European Court of Justice.

“If the Commission does not revoke its authorisation for glyphosate, the NGOs will proceed with court action,”  the complainants confirmed.

Anaïs Berthier, a senior lawyer and head of ClientEarth Brussels, told Euractiv it is “really difficult to assess how long it is going to take. Usually it takes around one year, one year and half before the general court of the EU”.

Then “it is at least another year” in case the Commission loses the case and goes for the appeal, as “it generally happens”.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic] 

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