Europe’s highest court on [Dec. 3] tossed out a challenge from Brussels to the European Commission decision that lets Europeans use glyphosate-based herbicides known to harm bees.

Not reaching the merits of the case, the European Court of Justice determined that Brussels has no grounds to mount the challenge as a regional government.

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Brussels passed its own ban on glyphosate-based herbicides in 2016 as part of zero-pesticides policy, and it filed suit when the European Commission decided the following year to extend approval of glyphosate-based herbicides through Dec. 15, 2022.

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Though EU law gives national governments a lot of latitude in challenging EU regulations, the bar is higher for local and regional governments. In this case, the court said the Brussels Capital Region had not shown that the glyphosate rule directly affected it and left it without the ability to ban its use in its region.

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