Austrian govt refuses to implement glyphosate ban ‘due to technicality’

Austria’s government said on Monday it would not implement a ban on the controversial herbicide glyphosate, despite MPs having voted for such a measure to come into effect on January 1. In a letter to the speaker of parliament, Chancellor Brigitte Birlein said the European Commission had not been given the necessary notification about the measure and it therefore could not enter into force, AFP reports.

“I want to stress that this is purely a formal legal decision and not about assessing the content of the proposal,” Bierlein said.

Austria would have been the first EU country to enforce a ban on the herbicide after MPs approved the decision in July.

Glyphosate is classified as “probably carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the EU in December 2017 renewed the weed killer’s license across Europe for five years.