No qualified majority vote in favour of glyphosate achieved today

The EU Commission’s amended proposal to approve glyphosate herbicide for only 18 months today failed to get qualified majority approval from EU member states. The issue will now go to an appeals committee, with a vote scheduled for around 20 June.

A French journalist, Isabelle Ory, said on Twitter that France has changed position.

Previously France had given a clear “no” to glyphosate, and correspondingly abstained in the vote today as promised. However Ory says France now does not want to block the Commission’s proposal to re-approve glyphosate in the appeals committee and might end up voting for re-approval.

Ory refers to “the complicated position of France”.

UPDATE, 6 Jan, 20.00 hrs: We've just heard that France has changed positions again. The French permanent representative to the EU who briefed journalists with the "we abstain but don't want to block so might end up supporting" position this morning had to call all of them in the late afternoon telling them that France's position was back to "abstain".