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German farmers launched a week of protests on 08/01/2024 against government plans to cut farm fuel and vehicle subsidies. Tractor convoys blocked roads in most parts of Germany and truck drivers also joined the protests. On 11/01/2024, the government proposed a compromise whereby vehicle subsidies would be maintained while fuel subsidies would be phased out, but according to German farmers and their associations, including Germany's largest agricultural organisation DBV, this is not enough. The protests, involving tens of thousands of farmers and up to 100,000 tractors in Germany, are expected to culminate in a rally in Berlin on 15/01/2024. But protests have also taken place in a number of other European countries in the past week. In Lithuania, on 08/01/2024, farmers protested against the decision of the Ministry of Agriculture to impose restrictions on the use of diesel in agriculture, with effect from 01/01/2024, but farmers are also criticising the results of nature restoration targets, the impact of the ban on fur farming and the continued import and export of Russian grain. As a result, Lithuanian farmers have been lighting campfires across the country in protest against the government's actions. In the second half of last week, farmers' protests were also launched in Romania, both in the context of the German protests and in view of the European Commission's negotiations on a possible extension of trade liberalisation with Ukraine. Farmers in France and Poland have also demonstrated against government and European decisions in November and December. Polish farmers were still blocking the border with Ukraine in the first weeks of 2024. But last week the blockades were ended, after the Polish government reached an agreement with farmers there to start subsidies for maize production, maintain agricultural taxes at 2023 levels and increase preferential liquidity loans. Although the agreement did not include restrictions on imports of Ukrainian products, Polish farmers eventually ended a demonstration blockade of the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing. The measures will be implemented once the legislative process is completed and approved by the European Commission.
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The European Commission is working on a proposal to liberalise trade with Ukraine, and trade could be liberalised until June 2025. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis will decide on the possible extension of duty-free trade. However, Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski warns of the possible impact of Ukrainian imports on the European market. Wojciechowski insists on the inclusion of safeguard measures and quantitative restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products - mainly poultry meat and sugar. Otherwise, he says, the Agriculture Commissioner will not sign the extension of duty-free trade. Wojciechowski also met on 10/01/2024 with representatives of the agricultural and food sector - Copa-Cogeca, Europe's largest agricultural organisation, the Association of Poultrymeat Processors and Trade (AVEC), the European Sugar Producers Association (CEFS), the European Corn Producers Confederation (CEPM), the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the European Union of Wholesale Egg, Egg, Poultry and Game Producers (EUWEP). The organisations stressed the need to manage the flow of Ukrainian products into the EU and highlighted the disproportionate burden on the agricultural sector of duty-free Ukrainian imports. Thus, the organisations call for strengthening the functioning of Black Sea ports, investment in improving logistics and infrastructure of solidarity routes, Ukraine's compliance with phytosanitary and animal welfare standards, the introduction of a system for determining the destination of Ukrainian products and the introduction of thresholds for the import of sensitive agricultural commodities.
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Last week, the Belgian Presidency started technical negotiations on the revision of the so-called breakfast directives. The EU Council adopted its mandate in December 2023 (available here), as did the European Parliament (opinion available here). In the case of honey, both the European Parliament and the Council agree that the origin of honey should be labelled with the country of origin, and in the case of mixes, the countries should be labelled in descending order of weight in the final product. The percentages should be labelled with the exact percentage; in the case of the European Parliament's opinion, all the countries of origin of the honey in the mix should be labelled; in the case of the Council's opinion, Member States should be able to decide to label only the four countries with the highest weight share. Both institutions supported exemptions for small packages of honey. In the case of fruit juices, the European Parliament supports the labelling of the country of origin of the fruit used, which the Council has not included in its mandate. However, both institutions agreed on the introduction of two new categories labelled 'reduced sugar fruit juice' and 'reduced sugar fruit juice from concentrate'. In addition, the European Parliament is demanding that the labels of these fruit juices cannot claim that reduced-sugar fruit juices have positive characteristics compared to other fruit juices, such as containing fewer calories or being healthier. This proposal is missing from the Council's position. The European Parliament also proposes that the country of origin of the fruit and the sugar used should also be indicated on the labels of jams, but the Council has not included this requirement in its position either. On 08/01/2024, Belgium presented a timetable for the negotiations on the breakfast directives. The plan includes six technical meetings from 10/01/2024 to 25/01/2024 and so far only one political meeting in trialogue, scheduled for 30/01/2024. The technical meetings should discuss the main differences between the positions of the institutions, in particular the introduction of a traceability system and quality issues (ultrafiltration, heat treatment processes, artificial evaporation) for honey and the different positions on labelling of fruit juices and jams.

The European institutions continue to negotiate positions on the issue of new genomic techniques. The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) adopted its opinion on new genomic techniques on 11/12/2023 by 34 votes to 11, with 1 abstention. In its opinion, COMAGRI strengthens the scientific basis for the assessment of new genomic techniques and the predictability of the verification process and proposes to exclude NGT1 plants from patentability. Use in organic farming should be banned for the time being, according to COMAGRI's opinion, but a review should be allowed after seven years. However, the requirement to label bags of NGT1 seed should be removed. COMAGRI's opinion is that new genomic techniques could be renamed precision breeding techniques and that the NGT1 category should be extended. COMAGRI shares competence with the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI) on some articles. COMENVI is expected to vote on its opinion on 24/01/2024. A vote in the plenary of the European Parliament is tentatively scheduled for February 2024. However, MEPs in COMENVI have so far been unable to find a consensus on what COMENVI's opinion should look like. A meeting of rapporteurs on 10/01/2024 ended in failure, with the next meeting scheduled for 16/01/2024. The situation is also stalled at the Council of Ministers, due to widely diverging positions in EU member states. Belgium, which took over the Council presidency in January 2024, has scheduled more than a dozen technical meetings in the first half of this year with the aim of reaching a common position, with negotiations also starting last week. However, on 11/01/2024, representatives of environmental organisations, part of the farming community and representatives of the Green political group in the European Parliament protested against the adoption of more flexible rules for new genomic techniques. The organisers of the protest relied on a December 2023 opinion of the French health authority ANSES, according to which the criteria for the classification of new genomic techniques in the Commission proposal are not based on scientific grounds. However, the scientific community, led by a number of Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, physics and medicine, is calling for scientific progress in the field of new genomic techniques not to be blocked in an open letter, which academics can still sign. According to the signatories of the letter, new genomic techniques hold promise for sustainable agriculture, improved food security and innovative medical solutions. But opportunities could also be seen in new jobs and greater economic prosperity.
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The European Union should increase its own funding, according to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. Belgium will take over the presidency of the Council of the EU from January 2024. The Belgian Prime Minister said that the EU is already facing limits on the funds it can ask national governments to finance its priorities. Given the series of crises that the EU has had to face in recent months and years (the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Covid-19, the Israeli conflict), the need for strategic solutions to global problems is reinforced in the EU. Meanwhile, European leaders have already started negotiations on the revision of the EU budget for the period 2021-2027, which should now include funding for Ukraine. The Commission had already proposed an increase of €66 billion in the current EU budget at the end of 2023 to help Ukraine and to cover other unforeseen expenses, but in the end, in the face of criticism from some member states, the EU is negotiating an amount of €21 billion. The EU currently has its own funding, which comes from contributions from EU member states and tariffs on imports from outside the EU. In 2021, the Commission has introduced an EU-wide plastics tax, which is expected to bring €6 billion per year to the EU budget (but the total EU budget for the period 2021-2027 is €1.2 trillion). De Croo's position opens the door to the possible introduction of other EU-wide taxes, but De Croo has not yet specified what these taxes might be, or from what source the increased public funds would come. For example, the institutions are currently discussing an EU-wide tax on carbon emissions and profits of multinational companies, which could bring an additional €36 billion a year to the EU budget after 2028. But De Croo said there was also the question of how the new funds should be spent. The largest shares of the EU budget go to the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Funds, which De Croo said will continue to require funding, but it is inevitable that there will be additional budget lines outside these two areas that will need to be addressed from the EU budget. These priorities should be discussed by EU leaders in the context of the negotiations on the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework.
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