Ten months after the herbicide’s authorisation was renewed for ten years, Corinne Lepage is taking the matter to the European Court of Justice at the request of three French NGOs. She denounces “a failure to apply the precautionary principle”, while France had withdrawn Roundup Pro 360 from the market in 2019, a herbicide containing glyphosate produced by Monsanto.
New twist in the glyphosate affair. Ten months after the herbicide’s authorization was renewed on the market for ten years, Corinne Lepage is taking up the subject: the former MEP and former Minister of the Environment filed an appeal with the European Union Court of First Instance on Friday, August 2, 2024, specifies Agence France Presse (AFP) which has just learned the news.
This appeal follows the request of the three French NGOs Agir pour l’environnement, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and the collective of anti-pesticide mayors, who are calling for the decision to be annulled.
Why are we talking about it?
Due to the lack of a majority in a vote by the Member States and following a report by the European Food Safety Authority considering that the level of risk did not justify its ban, the decision to renew the authorisation of the herbicide for ten years was taken by the European Commission on 28 November 2023.
Without further ado, the three French NGOs and a collective led by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, including Générations futures, then brought the matter before the European courts against this decision on 1is August 2024. Result: the two interpellations had been rejected at the beginning of the summer, AFP learned from Corinne Lepage, and from François Veillerette, of Générations futures.
What does science say about glyphosate?
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified glyphosate, the active substance in several very common herbicides, “probably carcinogenic”. A more recent study by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) confirmed the WHO’s conclusions in 2021. The French institute concluded that “the existence of an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas” (a cancer of the lymphatic system) with “an average level of presumption”. Another American analysis published in 2019 in the Unit[…]
- sciencesetavenir.fr
