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"Applications not checked in time": Klöckner authority abducted glyphosate exit

2019-12-13T16:31:58.044Z


France prohibits a large proportion of glyphosate products, but in Germany they can continue to be used without any loss. The reason is interesting.



Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner likes to emphasize it and often: The government wants to minimize the use of pesticides with the controversial drug glyphosate with the aim of complete withdrawal by the end of 2022. But the beautiful words follow no action - on the contrary: on St. Nicholas Day, the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and food safety granted glyphosate pesticide producers the approval for another year. They now apply until December 15, 2020.

"The authorizations that have been renewed remain unchanged in terms of content," confirms the Federal Office. Meaning: There are no new editions. Not even the often requested sale to private customers was regulated. No minimization is only in sight.

The reason given for the unconditional extension is that the Authority has failed, for various reasons, to examine the manufacturers' applications for approval in due time. Therefore, now must be extended unchecked, so that the company no harm, it wants the law.

No support for German farmers at the glyphosate exit

What the Germans do not succeed in time seems to be no problem in France. The French Agency for Food and Environmental Safety ANSES has recently named 36 glyphosate-containing products that will be banned after 2020. This corresponds to almost three quarters of the volume sold in 2018. A further four products are to be refused approval due to insufficient data on possible health risks.

"While France bans much of the glyphosate products, the federal government continues to lengthen its approval for another year, with no restrictions or new requirements, because the trials are ongoing or the authorities have failed to agree that the promised Glyphosat exit for Julia Klöckner in the coalition agreement is only an annoying burden instead of a serious goal ", says the green member of the Bundestag and agricultural expert Harald Ebner. "It is particularly pernicious that Klöckner does nothing at all to support agriculture in phasing out glyphosate - the farmers are rightly angry about that," says Ebner.

He fears that Germany will only drop out if it is indispensable: if the EU bans the use of the active substance glyphosate Europe-wide. EU approval is currently valid until the end of 2022 - also thanks to the help of the then Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt, who in the decisive vote surprisingly and against the will of the Federal Ministry for the Environment with a Yes vote.

At present, the industry is working together to obtain another permit for the use of the glyphosate raw material in Brussels. The "Glyphosate Renewal Group" of nine companies, which also includes the German Bayer group and the ChemChina subsidiary Syngenta, submitted an application for renewal of the approval of the active substance from 2022 on Thursday in Brussels to the competent EU authority in Brussels, an impending ban avert.

This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.

What is in the new SPIEGEL and what stories you find at SPIEGEL +, you will also learn in our free policy newsletter DIE LAGE, which appears six times a week - compact, analytical, opinionated, written by the political minds of the editorial.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2019-12-13

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