On request from the Commission, Germany, who carried out the initial assessment of glyphosate prior to its EU approval, has provided its preliminary views on the contents of the Earth Open Source report to which the Honourable Member refers(1). Germany emphasises that it is impossible, in such short notice, to analyse all 359 studies referred to in the report, as many of them post-date the approval of the substance. Nonetheless, most of them have been taken into account in the risk assessment by national and international bodies, without questioning the validity of the existing EU approval. The re-evaluation of the substance, which is to start in June 2012, will take these findings and any other peer reviewed open scientific literature carefully into account.

Furthermore, Germany observes that the report contains little new evidence but essentially marks a profound disagreement with the toxicological and regulatory approaches globally applied.

The matter is closely followed up by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health which, for the time being, did not find evidence that the initial assessment has been flawed or biased.

The Commission also refers the Honourable Member to its responses to Questions P‑010522/2010, E‑006135/2011, E‑006365/2011, E‑007160/2011, E‑007546/2011, E‑007708/2011 and E‑008116/2011(2).

(1) http://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/neue_daten_zu_gesundheitlichen_aspekten_von_glyphosat.pdf (2) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/application/home.do?language=EN