Austria’s ban on weedkiller glyphosate hits roadblock 9DEZ19

 MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!!!! Will we ever find out how much it cost bayer - monsanto to get Austrian Hure chancellor brigitte bierlein to stop the national ban on glyphosate ( roundup in the U.S. ) from taking effect? The official reason is a "political technicality". This is important for the fight against roundup in the U.S., bayer-monsanto will use their billions to keep roundup on the market with no concern for the health of the residents of the United States. From SumOfUs and the AP.....

Austria was about to become the first country in Europe to ban toxic glyphosate. That was before Bayer got its claws into the interim Austrian chancellor.

With just three weeks before the ban was to come into effect, the chancellor is suddenly trying to block it on a technicality.

Bayer, and the multi-billion dollar pesticide lobby, is likely behind this change of heart -- and now we have just three weeks to change the chancellor’s mind. 

Three weeks ago, everyone in Austria felt sure that the glyphosate ban would happen. It would be a worldwide boost to other countries trying to ban glyphosate. This week’s announcement is a shock to millions of people who were counting on the chancellor Brigitte Bierlein to do the right thing. 

With your help, we’ll make it clear how wildly unpopular axing the the glyphosate ban would be.

Over two million people read Kronen Zeitung.every day. A front-page spotlight on how she’s going to continue to allow toxic glyphosate to be sprayed in Austria will force her to pay attention to her people’s demands -- not Bayer’s crafty lies.

Austria’s ban on weedkiller glyphosate hits roadblock

BERLIN (AP) — An Austrian ban on the weedkiller glyphosate, a substance that has long been disputed in Europe and beyond, can’t take effect on Jan. 1 as supporters hoped, the government said Monday.

The country’s lawmakers voted in July to ban the herbicide, best known as an ingredient in Roundup. But interim Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein informed the parliament’s speaker Monday that she won’t promulgate the legislation because of a legal technicality.

Bierlein said that European Union regulations required the EU’s executive commission to be notified of the draft law, but that didn’t happen. She stressed that her decision not to put the law into effect stemmed only from legal issues and didn’t imply an opinion on the glyphosate ban itself.

It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen now with the plan to outlaw the substance.

At the time of the July vote, some lawmakers raised concerns that the ban would run afoul of EU law. The EU in late 2017 approved a five-year extension allowing the use of glyphosate in member countries.

The herbicide is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Monsanto parent Bayer is currently facing lawsuits in the United States over claims that Roundup causes cancer. Bayer argues that studies have established that glyphosate is safe.

Bierlein’s non-partisan interim administration took office after ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s coalition with the far-right Freedom Party collapsed in May.

Kurz’s center-right party, which opposed the glyphosate ban, emerged as the strongest by far in a September election. The party is in negotiations to form a new coalition government with the environmentalist Greens.