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Portugal, which holds the Presidency of the Council from January to the end of June 2021, is working to reach an agreement on the various parts of the CAP package during May 2021; the political agreement should be finalized by the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 31/05/2021. To make this possible, the Portuguese Presidency is planning another super trilogue, which could take place in the week after 17/05/2021. The agreement should then be submitted to the European Parliament for final approval, the chair of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development should receive the agreement in June 2021, and the final text of the agreement will then have to be translated into all official languages of the European Union. The final formal approval of the agreement by Parliament (during the plenary session) and the Council could then take place in September or October 2021, during the Slovenian Presidency.

As part of its work on its national CAP strategic plan, France is also preparing climate and environmental regimes, the so-called eco-schemes. According to French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie, eco-schemes should be set up so that as many French farmers as possible can use them. Denormandie also said that if the current status quo were maintained, up to 70% of French farmers would have the right to draw from the budget for eco-schemes. However, French environmental organizations have sharply criticized the minister's remarks, support for the status quo, and the effort to make aid as accessible as possible to almost all farmers without having to change anything, are, in their view, the opposite of the effort to enable a shift to agro-organic farming practices. According to environmental organizations, the remaining 30% of farmers who would not currently benefit from the eco-schemes would have to make only minimal changes to their agricultural practices to be eligible for support from the eco-schemes. France's strategic plan should be completed in June 2021.

On 02/04/2021, French farmers demonstrated in 12 departments before regional authorities against the CAP reform. Farmers, who have chosen the motto "France, do you still want your farmers?", do not agree with the eco-schemes proposed under the CAP reform. They are concerned about the way in which funds from the CAP funds are distributed to support priority organic farming and the construction and protection of landscape features. According to French farmers, on the other hand, precision agriculture should be financed from the funds. The budget for eco-schemes has not yet been agreed at EU level, the European institutions support the allocation of 20-30% of the budget of the first pillar, Germany supports 25%.
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The Dutch bank ING has published its own in-depth study of the Farm to Fork strategy, one of the aims of which is to expand the area of organic farming to 25% of the area of agricultural land. According to ING, however, the livestock sector - the dairy sector in particular - will have difficulty achieving this goal. According to ING, the strategy also suffers from the fact that it has so far received only mixed support from farmers, industry, and Member States, and diverting part of the CAP funds to meet Farm to Fork goals will not be easy. Further efforts will also be needed to boost demand for organic production. In its study, ING further states that the 25% target for organic farming can only be achieved if all actors in the chain are involved in meeting the target - farmers, dairy processors, traders, chefs, and consumers who are willing to pay extra for organic production. In addition, according to ING, the costs of farmers, the food industry and consumers will increase in line with the Farm to Fork goals, the bank also states that the largest dairy companies focus on reducing methane emissions rather than expanding organic production.
More information is available here.

The Italian government has presented a proposal for a new animal welfare label for dairy products. The new label was created in response to the lack of transparency in the dairy industry. According to the proposal, the labelling is divided into 6 categories, ranging from 0 to 5, where the green "0" represents animal husbandry that meets European standards for organic farming; "1" indicates free range; "2" means free range for 4 months of the year; "3" represents enriched cage farms; "4" indicates that the cattle were kept tethered indoors; and "5" marked in black indicates breeding where no criteria meet the statutory limits.
More information is available here.