Monsanto, the multinational agrochemical company, has declined an invite to appear in front of an EU hearing into the authorisation of glyphosate.

The EU hearing into reauthorising the most widely used herbicide was discussed on Wednesday in Brussels. Tim Bowmer, chair of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA)’s Committee for Risk Assessment, defended his agency’s assessment that glyphosate does not cause cancer. After excluding studies that did not meet its standards, all ECHA experts on the committee agreed on the basis of existing data on rats, mice and humans that “no classification for carcinogenicity is warranted”. The final vote on the reauthorisation is likely to be later this year, as the current authorisation for glyphosate expires at the end of December.

The failure of Monsanto to appear in front of the hearing was criticised by Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, who said that “to refuse to appear before the European Parliament is to refuse to respond to the concerns of the 500 million Europeans we represent”. As a result of failing to appear, the EU has enacted new powers to ban Monsanto from lobbying in Parliament, where it is no longer allowed access to MEPs.

Monsanto wrote a letter to MEPs, which explained that it did not think the hearing was an appropriate forum – calling it an attempt by those opposed to modern agriculture practices to influence and frustrate EU scientific and regulatory process.

Monsanto’s vice-president Phillip Miller said: “We have observed with increasing alarm the politicisation of the EU procedure on the renewal of glyphosate. A procedure which should be scientific, but which in many respects has been hijacked by populism.”

It is uncertain how the vote on glyphosate will go, as key players like France and Germany are unclear on their intentions.