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On 08/10/2021, Member States approved a European Commission proposal to ban the use of titanium dioxide (E171) as a food additive from 2022. Titanium dioxide is used as a colorant in several products such as chewing gum, pastries, food supplements and soups. The Commission proposal is based on the scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which concluded that E171 can no longer be considered safe when used as a food additive, especially as genotoxicity concerns cannot be ruled out. As neither the Council nor the European Parliament objected by the end of 2021, the text entered into force in January 2022. Thus, a six-month phase-out period has been launched, after which a total ban will enter into force.
More information is available here and here.

Italy hopes to secure a blocking minority in the Council against the introduction of the Nutri-Score nutrition labelling scheme. Stefano Patuanelli, the Italian Minister for Food and Agriculture, has spoken repeatedly about the increasing chance of securing a blocking minority in recent weeks. In addition to Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, the Czech Republic, and Sweden are likely to oppose Nutri-Score in the Council. In recent weeks, Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas has also been seen as more of an opponent of the Nutri-Score label, although Spain is already using the system voluntarily. Patuanelli said that if Spain also rejected the Nutri-Score in the Council, the states would have the necessary blocking minority. The European Commission should present a proposal for a labelling scheme under the Farm to Fork strategy by the end of 2022.
More information is available here.

Agriculture ministers of the EU member states met last week at the last Council of Ministers in 2021. The Council had several key topics on its agenda, including the CAP, unfair trading practices (background document available here), the contingency plan for food security and food security in times of crisis, fertilizers and international trade between the EU and China. The Czech Republic also raised a point concerning the difficult situation on the pigmeat market. During the Council on 13/12/2021, ministers approved Council conclusions on new plan to safeguard Europe’s food supply (available here).

On 15/12/2021, the European Commission published a Communication on Sustainable Carbon Cycles, setting out how to increase removals of carbon from the atmosphere. To balance out the impacts of our CO2 emissions, the EU will need to drastically reduce its reliance on fossil carbon, upscale carbon farming to store more carbon in nature, and promote industrial solutions to sustainably and verifiably remove and recycle carbon. The Communication sets out short- to medium-term actions to support carbon farming and upscale this green business model to better reward land managers for carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. By 2030, carbon farming initiatives should contribute 42Mt of CO2 storage to Europe's natural carbon sinks.
More information is available here.

The European Commission presented a new directive on 15/12/2021 to combat environmental crime, as the existing rules governing the illegal trade in waste and wildlife, environmental pollution offenses and the illegal trade in waste and wildlife do not deter these crimes effectively enough. The proposed directive, entitled "protection of the environment through criminal law", falls under the responsibility of the European Commission 's Directorate - General for the Environment and Justice, and is part of the Commission' s initiatives under the European Green Deal. The recast legislation follows the evaluation of the 2008 Environmental Crime Directive (Directive 2008/99) carried out in 2019/2020, which showed that the number of successfully prosecuted environmental cases is low, cross-border cooperation is weak and sanctions are considered insufficiently dissuasive.
More information is available here.