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Austria backs on ban on glyphosate

Austria has announced that it will not implement a total ban on glyphosate, despite a vote in this direction in Parliament this summer.

The total ban on glyphosate was adopted in July 2019: right-wing and social-democratic deputies voted in favor of a majority. The law was to come into force next January and make Austria the first European country to totally ban this controversial herbicide. But this week, the government of experts who has been acting since last June in Austria, announced that he could not implement the ban because the law should, he said, be the subject a notification to the European Commission " so that it and the Member States can comment ", which was not done " in due form ". Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein explained that she would not enact the law because if she did, it would expose Austria to legal risks.

A decision that was much criticized

NGOs have strongly criticized this decision. If the Chancellor pointed out that this was a formal legal decision and not an assessment of the content of the law, it did not convince associations such as Greenpeace, which denounces a retreat from the " pressures " of German group Bayer and its subsidiary Monsanto as well as the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. Greenpeace recalls that in an opinion addressed to Austria in late November, the European Commission did not formally oppose the application of this law. However, it mentioned a risk of infringement.

The parties that voted for the text also strongly criticized this decision, the extreme right and social democrats in particular. The latter tabled on Wednesday, December 11, a new amendment to Parliament to ban glyphosate. For everything must be done now: the deputies will have, again, vote in the coming weeks on this amendment. The Social Democrats hope that the text will obtain, a second time, a majority.

Debates closely followed by conservatives and Greens

The two parties have been negotiating for a month to perhaps form a government together, which would be a first at the federal level. To hear them, the discussions are positive, despite the many program differences. But glyphosate is one of these differences: the Greens are in favor of a total ban while the Conservatives voted for a partial ban, opposing the text adopted in July in Parliament. The subject could therefore be invited to the current negotiations.

In any case, Austria illustrates the heated debate about glyphosate and the implementation of its ban, while the license for glyphosate in the European Union runs until December 2022.

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