The European Union Appeals Committee has failed to reach agreement over the re-licensing of the World’s most used herbicide, glyphosate, with France and Malta voting against the re-approval and seven other countries abstaining including Germany, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg, Greece and Bulgaria.

“The Commission regrets that no decision could be taken by the member states, in spite of its efforts over recent weeks to accommodate requests and concerns,” a spokeswoman for the European Commission said.

The European Commission will now take the final decision on the re-licensing of glyphosate next week , however it has failed to gain the support of the European Member States during the Great Glyphosate Rebellion and so it is unlikely that they will be able to re-license the weedkiller without very tight restrictions on use, if at all.

If the licence is not extended before July 1st, when the current license runs out, manufacturers will have six months to phase out products containing glyphosate.

Jonas Oxgaard, senior analyst at investment bank Bernstein, has estimated Monsanto could lose earnings of up to $100 million if the EU were to halt glyphosate sales.