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In 2022, the European Commission will allocate €185.9 million to agri-food promotion policy inside and outside the EU. The key criteria for obtaining funding are set so that the promotion is focused primarily on meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal, the promotion of organic production, fruit and vegetables, sustainable agriculture and animal welfare. The European Commission's priority is also a campaign targeting markets with high growth potential, such as Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico. Calls for proposals for the 2022 campaigns will be published early next year. The Commission is also currently preparing a revision of its promotion policy legislation, which should be published in the course of 2022.
More information is available here and here.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) last week published a report entitled "Emissions Impossible Europe: How Europe’s Big Meat and Dairy are heating up the planet", stating that half of Europe's large meat and dairy companies have not committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. According to the report, the emissions production of the twenty largest producers of meat and dairy products (including, for example, Nestlé, Danone, Arla, Friesland Campina, Lactalis) exceeds the emissions produced throughout the Netherlands. Half of the companies do not have climate plans and targets, in other companies’ climate targets are often misleading - Nestlé, for example, has committed to reducing 50% of emissions by 2030, but says the company will grow. As a result, there will be a reduction of only 4% compared to the company's carbon footprint in 2018. In addition, according to the IATP, some companies have even increased their emissions in recent years.
More information is available here.

The European institutions have been negotiating the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) since June 2018, when the European Commission presented its own proposal for new European agricultural rules. After more than three years of intensive negotiations, the European institutions (the European Parliament, Council, and European Commission) reached an agreement, new rules were agreed at political level in June 2021, a political agreement was formally adopted by the European Parliament at the end of November 2021 and at the beginning of December 2021 by the Council. The new rules, which will be implemented from January 2023 after a two-year transition period (2021-2022), were also published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 06/12/2021, available in all EU official languages. The new CAP rules will enter into force on 01/01/2023 and will apply until the end of 2027.

On 21/04/2021, the European Commission adopted a delegated act on sustainable financing, the so-called taxonomy. It is a package of measures designed by the Commission to help improve the flow of money towards sustainable activities in the EU. The package will allow investors to refocus investment on more sustainable technologies and businesses, thus contributing to the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The delegated act will enter into force on 01/01/2022. It will describe sustainability criteria for renewable energy, car manufacturing, shipping, forestry and bioenergy and other areas, and will include a "technology neutral" benchmark of 100 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour for all energy production investments. The European Commission is now likely to present a second delegated act on 22/12/2021, focusing on how nuclear and gas-fired power plants will be designated in the taxonomy.
More information is available here.

According to its current work plan for 2022, the European Commission plans to present a revision of the Directive on Sustainable Use of Pesticides on 23/03/2022. As part of the revision, the Commission plans to adopt legislation that, as set out in the Farm to Fork strategy, would reduce the risk of pesticide use by 50%. Also, during 2022, the Commission should present legislative proposals, including proposals for setting nature restoration targets (originally planned for the end of 2021).