2021
On 31/03/2021, the European Commission published a working document evaluating the European Animal Welfare Strategy. The study assessed the fulfilment of the objectives of the strategy in the period 2012-2015; according to the results of the Commission, none of the objectives of the strategy has been fulfilled yet. The study focuses on several areas, including the transport of live animals, the cutting of pigtails, and the method of stunning animals before slaughter. According to the Commission, these three areas will also be the focus of a planned revision of European animal welfare legislation. The European Commission states in the document that although animal welfare strengthens during transport, long-distance transport, and transport at very high or low outdoor temperatures remain a challenge. Tail docking in pigs is a persistent practice in 26 of the 28 Member States, and despite a formal ban on this practice, it occurs in around 150 million pigs each year. The only two states that comply with the ban are Finland and Sweden. Following the publication of the document, European environmental organizations have already called on the European Commission to revise and strengthen European legislation on animal welfare.
2021
Last week, German agriculture ministers reached agreement on the text of a draft national CAP Strategic Plan. The proposals will now wait for an agreement on the CAP reform in trilogues, then be amended if necessary, approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Federal Government, and then sent to the European Commission for final approval. The ministers supported the allocation of 25% of the first pillar fund for the so-called eco-schemes and emphasized the important role of compliance with cross-compliance rules in the payment of other funds from the first pillar. Germany also supports the reallocation of funds from the first to the second pillar - 11% in 2024, 12.5% in 2025, and 15% in 2026. 5% of the funds should also be earmarked for environmental cross compliance, including support for the set-aside (the exclusion of land from fallow land, landscape features or flower belts should be a voluntary tool), and 2% of the funds could be used for coupled support for sheep, goats, and non-dairy cows. Germany will also support steps to achieve more diverse plantings - at least 10% should be occupied by legumes and at least five main fruits. Under the current proposal, Germany allocates 47% of CAP aid to environmental objectives. Wolfram Günter, Saxony's Minister for Agriculture (for the Greens), said that Germany would continue to work to ensure that 100% of CAP spending in the future went to meeting sustainability and public goods goals. Günter, who chaired the meeting of the Federal Ministers of Agriculture, also rejected support for mandatory capping of direct payments or the degressivity of direct payments. In addition, Germany will provide 2% of the envelope for direct payments to support young farmers, which will allow the provision of additional support to young farmers of up to €70 per hectare up to an area of up to 120 hectares. The agreement of the federal ministers was immediately criticized by Joachim Rukwied, president of the German agricultural organization DBV. According to Rukwied, a plan for a massive reallocation of funds from the first to the second pillar does not provide any guarantee that all these funds will go only to farmers, and this reallocation would drastically reduce the role that direct payments play in farmers' incomes - here, according to Rukwied, there would be a risk of a fall of up to 40%.
More information is available here.
2021
On 30/03/2021, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, met with representatives of the environmental climate movement "Fridays for the Future", led by Greta Thunberg. The subject of discussion was the CAP reform. Representatives of the Friday for the Future movement said that the reform had too many shortcomings in the wording of the current proposals, so they called for their withdrawal and complete overhaul. In addition, according to them, the proposals run counter to the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement and the objectives of the European Green Deal. Frans Timmermans has not opposed the possibility of withdrawing CAP proposals in the past but during the meeting on 30/03/2021 he said that although linking the CAP to the objectives of the Europe Green Deal would not be easy, he still considered it feasible. Representatives of the movement also criticized the effects of trade agreements on the environment and climate, including the current EU trade agreement with Mercosur. Timmermans' next meeting with the Movement's representatives will take place during the spring of 2021.
More information is available here.
2021
Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, is very active on Twitter, where he reports in Polish and English on the ongoing CAP reform. However, he often comes into conflict with Polish farmers and representatives of Polish agricultural organizations. Farmers specially criticize the excessive administrative burden of the CAP, the EU's trade agreement with Mercosur, the high pesticide reduction targets, or the support expressed only for the farm family model. According to Polish farmers, the Commissioner is trying to support outdated agricultural models, the so-called retrospective revolution of European agriculture. According to representatives of Polish farmers, the reduction of pesticides, as required by the European Green Deal, will lead to a decline in European agricultural production, which will allow enhanced market access to competitors from Ukraine and Mercosur. Polish farmers are also criticizing the excessive pressure to support organic farming. According to the discussants, the European Union will lose its position as a net exporter in line with its goals, on the contrary, it will have to strengthen imports of agri-food commodities.
2021
The European institutions have confirmed further dates for the trilogues on CAP reform. Further negotiations on the Strategic Plans will take place on 16/04/2021 and 30/04/2021. The trilogue on Horizontal Issues will take place on 23/04/2021, and on the Common Market Organization on 21/04/2021. Another super trilogue, during which all three parts of the CAP reform - the Strategic Plans, Horizontal Issues, and the Common Market Organization - will be discussed, could then take place in mid-May 2021, with a view to reaching an agreement on the CAP by the end of May 2021.