EU starts discussing harmonised classification for glyphosate

The European Chemicals Agency’s Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) held its first preparatory discussion on the harmonised classification and labelling of glyphosate. To facilitate a balanced overview of a wide range of scientific views, six organisations were invited to give presentations, followed by an initial plenary discussion.
 

The presentations were given by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) as the dossier submitter, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the joint FAO/WHO meeting on pesticide residues (JMPR), industry’s glyphosate task force (GTF) and a representative of civil society (Health And Environmental Alliance, HEAL). All of the presentations are now available on ECHA’s website.
 

ECHA organised a public consultation on the German proposal for classification between 2 June and 18 July 2016. 
 

RAC will continue discussing the topic at its next meeting in March 2017 and the final independent scientific opinion regarding the proposed harmonised classification for glyphosate can be expected during 2017. The legal deadline for RAC to adopt its opinion is the end of November 2017.
 

When available, ECHA will submit RAC’s scientific opinion to the Commission, which takes the final decision on the harmonised classification and labelling of glyphosate. The Commission will also take the agreed classification into account when deciding on the renewal of the approval of glyphosate under the Plant Protection Products Regulation.