Dear minsters,
On October 13, all member states in Europe voted on the renewal of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate. After repeated calls from the House of Representatives, scientists, civil society organizations and citizens to vote against, Minister Adema and Minister Clarinval abstained for respectively the Netherlands and Belgium. The EU vote did not provide clarity, so another vote will be held on Nov. 16. With this letter we, a group of 291 different disciplines, affiliated to universities and research institutes, make an urgent appeal to the cabinet, specifically to the outgoing ministers Adema and Kuipers, and ministers Clarinval, Vandenbroucke and Khattabi: take people's health and the protection of nature seriously. In your decision, weigh recent and independent scientific insights heavily, which have not been sufficiently considered in the glyphosate dossier currently before the European member states.