News

The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) adopted an opinion on 10/01/2022 on the Commission's plans to establish a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). The opinion will now be forwarded to the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI), which has the main mandate to draft the European Parliament's report. The new COMAGRI opinion calls on the Commission to find a way to offset the effects of the carbon tax on product prices and the costs involved. It also calls for proper monitoring of EU agricultural production and draws attention to differences in production standards between the EU and third country trading partners. According to COMAGRI, the European Commission should also consider including all agri-food products in the new CBAM (currently it should only apply to fertilizers). The Commission should also examine changes in trade flows and supply chains, especially for fertilizers, and the effects on fertilizer prices and agricultural production, due to fears that the new tax will increase the final price of imported fertilizers.
More information is available here.

Last week, Italy confirmed the first case of African swine fever (ASF) in the Piedmont region of the northern part of the country. On 12/01/2022, the President of the Piedmont Region, Alberto Cirio, issued new precautionary measures suspending hunting activities throughout the province of Alessandria until 31/01/2022 and tightening up supervision of domestic pigs, including increasing attention in wild boars.
More information is available here.

EU Member States had until the end of 2021 to submit draft national strategic plans for the CAP. A total of nine EU Member States - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia, and Belgium - failed to meet the deadline. The remaining 18 Member States submitted proposals by the deadline (i.e., 31/12/2021). The German representatives said that Germany would try to submit proposals as soon as possible, attributing the delays to too long negotiations on new CAP rules.

The Austrian government is considering introducing compulsory capping of direct payments under the new CAP rules, which should be implemented from January 2023. According to representatives of agricultural organizations, capping in Austria would affect only 43 farms and save only around €3 million, however, representatives of agricultural organizations have worked closely with trade unions to ensure that, if the government decides to introduce capping, all (or the highest possible) labour costs are considered. Austrian agricultural organizations representing larger farmers have cited the government's approach as an example of the Robin Hood effect. Austria has already submitted a draft national strategic plan, but Austrian agricultural organizations still hope that last-minute changes will be possible.

On 07/01/2022, the Commission launched feedback on updated safeguard measures against chronic wasting disease. The aim of the initiative is to prevent the further spread of the disease in the EU. The consultation is open until 04/02/2022, available here.