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Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides reiterated last week that the European Commission will only carry out impact assessments for individual Farm to Fork objectives separately, and that the Commission continues to avoid carrying out cumulative impact assessments. In response to criticism from some MEPs who disagreed that no impact assessments had been published so far, Kyriakides said Farm to Fork had been published less than a year ago, and only in the form of a non-legally binding Communication, not a legislative act. However, the implementation of the cumulative impact assessment is repeatedly called not only by several MEPs, but also by representatives of large European NGOs, including CropLife (organizations representing pesticide producers) and Copa and Cogeca.
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The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI) supported the development of a single legal framework for soil protection in the EU during a vote on 16/04/2021. Soil protection is a theme that cuts across several European policies, including the CAP, the European Green Deal, and regulations on the use of fertilizers and pesticides. According to COMENVI, soil protection is therefore too fragmented, the solution would be to develop a single legal framework for soil protection in the EU. The proposal was supported in COMENVI by a vote of 73 in favour, and 7 against. The EP plenary will vote on the COMENVI opinion on 26-29 / 04/2021.

Belgium has banned soybean and palm oil-based biofuels due to environmental concerns, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. The aim of the measure is to reduce the demand for biofuels and increase the use of electricity, and train transport should also be strengthened. The ban on the use of biofuels from palm oil will come into force in mid-2022, and soybean fuels will be banned in 2023.
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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.