ABSTRACT
Pesticides governance is at the centre of a thick web of interests and values. This chapter sketches the EU legal framework on plant protection products, with a particular focus on the principles underpinning pesticides regulation, the authorization procedure and the tensions between transparency and confidentiality in access to scientific studies. Having recounted the different phases of the glyphosate controversy, it proceeds to map the different mechanisms that have been activated to hold both regulatory scientists (the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA) and decision makers (the European Commission) to account in the EU. The widespread contestation triggered by glyphosate has questioned the legal provisions through which regulatory science is validated by the legal system and, in so doing, it has exposed the assumptions shaping how expert authority is embedded in the legal system. The chapter provides an assessment of the potentials for accountability in EU pesticides regulation in the light of the glyphosate dispute.
