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In Ireland, a national animal welfare strategy entered into force on 01/02/2021. The strategy recognizes the interdependence between human, animal, and environmental health, and is based on five main principles: cooperation, evidence-based policymaking, knowledge enhancement, education, and an effective regulatory system. Ireland plans to ban fur farming by Easter, and financial support for animal welfare should be doubled.
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Members of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) approved by a vote of 40 in favour, 5 against, 3 abstentions, the European Commission's proposal to extend support measures for the EU wine sector. The support measures should apply until 15/10/2021, with effect retroactively from 16/10/2020. The Committee's recommendation has yet to be approved by the European Parliament's plenary in the coming week. The main component of the support measures is the support of private storage and crisis distillation of wine. The EU co-financing rate for all measures in the package could be increased to 70% instead of the usual 50%.
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Agriculture ministers met last week at the Council of Ministers to discuss issues related to trade agreements, Brexit, situation in the pig meat sector, and the CAP. Portugal initially outlined its agricultural priorities, reaffirming its intention to reach an agreement on the CAP by April 2021. During the discussion on trade agreements, several ministers emphasized that trade agreements should guarantee a level playing field for EU and third-country farmers - only imports of agri-food products that meet strict European environmental and climate standards should be allowed. On Brexit, ministers emphasized the need to monitor the implementation of the trade agreement with the United Kingdom, especially in geographical indications. An update of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) study on the impact of trade agreements was presented, but ministers will return to the subject of the JRC report during one of the next Council. On CAP reform, ministers called on the PT presidency to defend the Council's October positions, support simplification of the rules, balance the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the CAP, and reach an agreement as soon as possible. Several ministers (ES, NL, EE, FI, CZ, SK, IE, DK) expressed dissatisfaction with some of the European Parliament's proposals, regarding the proposed concept of a hybrid performance system using both the current rules and the new rules of the new implementation mechanism. According to the ministers, this proposal will not bring the required simplification. Under Miscellaneous, Slovenia called for the introduction of support measures for the pig meat.
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Last week, European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans reiterated that the new CAP must reflect the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy. Timmermans said the Commission could rework the proposals if necessary, but that the move was not yet up to date. Timmermans said that to ensure the strengthening of ambitions in the field of climate and environmental protection of the CAP, decisions on the shape of the future CAP should not be left to EU agriculture ministers and "old decision-making structures", the Commission should be given the right to intervene if ambitions would not be sufficiently strengthened.
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On 25/01/2021, the EP Committee on Budgetary Control discussed a new Study on the largest 50 beneficiaries in each EU Member State of CAP and cohesion funds. The study was prepared on the initiative of Committee Chair Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, DE). Monika Hohlmeier emphasized in the introduction that it is necessary to identify the final real beneficiaries of EU subsidies, the names of the real beneficiaries should be known, not only the names of the companies that applied for support (direct beneficiaries). According to Hohlmeier, at present the European institutions do not have an overview of who the EU budget goes to, and it is therefore not possible to control how these funds are spent. The direct beneficiary may be, for example, an agricultural holding, but the final beneficiary is the beneficial owner of the direct beneficiary, who has more than 25% ownership. The Committee also discussed the possibility of setting up a single Europe-wide reporting system that would gather information on the final recipients of European grants. This European reporting system should include not only the specific identification number of the final beneficiary, but also his date of birth, to avoid errors. During the meeting, the representative of DG AGRI supported the collection of information on final beneficiaries for audit and control purposes, stressing that Member States should be required to publish national lists of final beneficiaries.
The recording of the meeting can be viewed here.