Prime Minister Edouard Philippe cited safety concerns when he reiterated that France would vote against the European Commission’s proposal to extend the license for glyphosate for another 10 years, saying:
This is far too long, given the concerns that remain over this product, and France will vote against the proposal, as clearly laid out previously in July.”
The vote is due to take place by the end of this year. Failure to renew the license by the end of this year will initiate an automatic ban starting on January 1, 2018.
Philippe also said that the French government will create a proposal by the end of this year for “a plan to move away from glyphosate in light of the current research and available alternatives for farmers.”
The exact date of the French ban on Roundup has not been set. While Philippe referenced a gradual phase-out, other officials said that it would take place over the next 5 to 7 years.
France is the largest grain producer in the European Union. Last week, hundreds of framers blocked Champs-Elysées avenue to protest against the government’s threatened ban on glyphosate.
France has already taken steps to restrict the use of Roundup. Two years ago, France banned sales of Roundup in home-garden centers over fears that it might cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
France and many other European countries became alarmed over the safety of Roundup after it was re-classified as a “probable human carcinogen” in a report by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in March 2015.