As the European Pesticide Evaluation Bodies did not provide a final opinion on the controversial herbicide, the European Commission extended the deadline for the use of glyphosate until December 15, 2023
On 2 December in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed amendments to the EU implementing regulation on the timing of the approval of glyphosate, which was preceded by a series of events.
The approval of glyphosate as an active substance expires in Europe on December 15, 2022. On December 12, 2019, an application was submitted to renew the approval of this substance under Article 1 of the EU Implementing Regulation.
During the public consultations on the initial draft glyphosate renewal assessment report, there was a flurry of comments from both environmentalists and the public, as well as scientists and representatives of the pesticide industry. The discussion was accompanied by heated discussions in the media with articles of the opposite opinion - both in support and against one of the most used pesticides in the world. Given the sheer number of issues to be discussed by the experts during the evaluation, meeting the predetermined deadlines proved unrealistic. The evaluation took much longer.
Therefore, on May 10, 2022, the Authority and the European Chemicals Agency (“ECHA”) informed the European Commission that the decision on the expert risk assessment would be postponed until July 2023. Therefore, it is not possible to make a decision to extend the approval of glyphosate until December 15, 2022.
Since the evaluation of the active substance glyphosate was thus delayed for reasons beyond the applicant's control, the Commission considered it necessary to extend the approval period for this active substance in order to allow the necessary time to complete a fair and scientifically sound evaluation.