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BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The controversial weedkiller glyphosate will be approved in the EU for a further ten years. Minutes after a meeting with representatives of the EU member states behind closed doors, the EU Commission announced the controversial decision on Thursday. The EU member states could have prevented this, but there was not a sufficient majority to do so. The current approval would have expired in mid-December - by which time the EU Commission must have formally renewed the approval.

In order to keep risks to humans, animals and the environment as low as possible, the EU Commission wants to impose restrictions on how the product may be used. According to the authority, this includes measures to protect animals and plants that are not the actual target of glyphosate use. It should also be prohibited to use glyphosate as a drying agent before the harvest.

However, the Commission obviously does not want to take sole responsibility. A communication explicitly points out that the EU member states could continue to restrict glyphosate at national and regional level. However, the extent to which such restrictions are legally tenable following the Commission's decision is questionable. Luxembourg had tried to ban the use of glyphosate. However, this was overturned by the courts, partly because Luxembourg had not provided sufficient justification for the ban.

What happens next in Germany has not been conclusively clarified. The coalition agreement between the governing parties SPD, Greens and FDP states: "We will take glyphosate off the market by the end of 2023." However, this is now questionable. FDP parliamentary group deputy Carina Konrad told the German Press Agency on Thursday that Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir is now being asked to implement the ten-year extension of glyphosate in Germany.

Özdemir is one of the most important advocates of removing glyphosate from the market. The Green Party member said that he assumed that all three partners were committed to the coalition agreement "and would now implement it together". The national leeway should be used within the framework of what Brussels has determined.

According to Özdemir, it is unclear where the SPD in Berlin stands on the issue. He said that he was not aware of any "position of any kind" from the coalition partner. SPD MEPs Delara Burkhardt and Maria Noichl criticized the forthcoming extension.

There was joy on the part of the CDU/CSU. Norbert Lins (CDU), Chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the EU Parliament, described the extension as an important step for European agriculture.

Among other things, there is a dispute as to whether glyphosate could be carcinogenic. There are also risks to the environment. An extensive investigation by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) recently found no unacceptable risks, but pointed to data gaps in several areas.

According to Efsa, the aspects that have not been conclusively clarified include nutritional risks for consumers and the assessment of risks for aquatic plants. The available information also did not allow any clear conclusions to be drawn with regard to species protection.

Glyphosate is also known as a total herbicide; it kills plants. Wherever glyphosate is sprayed, grasses, shrubs or moss die. The product is mainly used in agriculture to keep a field free of weeds before crops are sown.

Glyphosate manufacturer Bayer welcomed the EU Commission's decision. "This renewed approval enables us to continue to provide farmers throughout the European Union with an important technology for integrated weed control," the Leverkusen-based company announced.

Environmental organizations and the Green Party are critical of the product. "Protecting the health of millions of Europeans must come before Bayer's corporate interests," said Jutta Paulus (Green Party), Member of the European Parliament. Christine Vogt from the Munich Environmental Institute said that the Commission clearly lacked the political mandate to continue authorizing the pesticide.

The fact that Germany abstained from the vote in Brussels on Thursday due to differing views within the German government has also been met with criticism. "The Greens have once again caved in to the blocking FDP, and the SPD has stood idly by," said Chris Methmann from the consumer organization Foodwatch. Not keeping the promise from the coalition agreement and then not voting against the extension is hypocritical and a deception of the voters./mjm/DP/stw