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The French, Italian, and Spanish wine cooperatives, together with Farm Europe, organized a public debate on the future of the wine sector on 02/12/2020. Organizations have asked the Commission to extend pandemic emergency measures until 2021. Spanish MEP Clara Aguilera (S&D) has called for stronger support for the sector from the Commission, while Italian MEP Paolo De Castro (S&D) has called for more flexibility in the use of EU funds. A larger budget should also be allocated to the programs. For the time being, the Commission envisages extending the existing emergency measures until mid-October 2021.
More information is available here.

The government of the Belgian region of Wallonia is currently discussing the possible authorization of neonicotinoids for sugar beet growers, following the authorization of the use of neonicotinoids by France. Although farmers' crops have suffered due to aphids that transmit beet jaundice, Environment Minister Céline Tellier has refused to grant an emergency permit for the use of neonicotinoids due to their negative impact on pollinators. Tellier said that in the future it aims to reach a share of 30% of the area of organic farming, a group of independent advisers for farmers on the sustainable use of pesticides should also be established.

On 20/11/2020, the European Commission launched a public consultation on a delegated act on sustainable finance - the EU classification scheme for green investments. The European Commission states that the new initiative creates a classification system for sustainable economic activities ("taxonomy") and focuses on the EU's environmental goals of climate change mitigation and adaptation. According to the Commission, this taxonomy will be a common language that investors around the world can use to invest in projects and economic activities that have a significant positive impact on the climate and the environment. The taxonomy falls under the European Green Deal, which aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. More than 430 contributions have already been sent to the public consultation on taxonomy in the first half of this year. On 20/11/2020, the Commission launched a follow-up public consultation on a draft delegated regulation (delegated act). In its proposal for a regulation, the Commission states that the agricultural sector emits high levels of greenhouse gases and is also particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. The agricultural sector can therefore play a central role in mitigating climate change while bringing benefits to adapt to climate change, reversing biodiversity loss, ensuring food security, and promoting other sustainable development goals. In addition to the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the agricultural sector also has an impact on the soil's ability to sequester carbon. The technical criteria for verifying investments in the agricultural sector should therefore reflect this dual role of the agricultural sector. According to the Commission, the impact of a criterion requiring the coverage of at least 10% of agricultural land with highly diverse landscape features on farm and rural incomes should also be assessed and monitored. The European Commission has presented a proposal for Technical Screening Criteria to determine the conditions under which an economic activity qualifies as a significant contributor to climate change mitigation and to determine whether that economic activity is causing significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives. In the chapter "Agriculture and forestry", the European Commission included:

Cultivation of non-permanent crops: The Commission will focus on protecting high-carbon non-agricultural land from land use change (non-permanent crops will not be grown on high-carbon land - peatlands, wetlands, etc.). The Farm Sustainability Plan should be submitted. The new Plan should describe the biophysical environment and cultivation systems of the holding, including information on land use change; measure the basic level of the company's "climate", i.e. its average performance in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration over the five years prior to the start of the project; identify management practices with the highest potential to make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation; and identify management procedures that ensure compliance with the "do no harm" criteria. Criteria for assessing whether agricultural practices are "seriously harmful" will be set around the topics of climate change and adaptation; sustainable use and protection of water resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution control and prevention; and the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. The synergy of agricultural practices with basic farming practices will also be assessed, including the Commission, for example, crop production practices (at least 75% of the holding's area should be covered by live crops), land management (exclusion of practices that damage histosol and organic soils; to artificially reduce the groundwater level on histosol and organic soils; elimination of mechanical weeding with inverted soil, as well as incineration of crop residues; on the contrary, support for practices leading to reduced plowing with priority to minimum or non-inverse plowing); nutrient management (systematic and regular testing of soil to determine, maintain and restore the optimal pH range and appropriate nutrient levels in the soil; application techniques to reduce ammonia emissions from the application of manure, solid manure and chemical fertilizers to agricultural land, which may include manure injection under soil surface, and others); and strengthening the area of agricultural land with high diversity landscape features (at least 10%).

Growing of perennial crops: again focusing on the protection of high-carbon non-agricultural land from land use change (permanent crops will not be grown on high-carbon land - peatlands, wetlands, etc.), and the Sustainability Plan for agricultural holdings.

Livestock production: again focusing on the protection of high-carbon non-agricultural land from land use change (livestock production will not take place on high-carbon land - wetlands, peatlands, continuously forested areas, etc.), and the Farm Sustainability Plan. The plan describes practices that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in livestock production through more efficient herd management, nutrient management or feeding. Good herd management practices should include the selection of breeds to suit local conditions; animal health care procedures in order to maintain animal health, reduce the need for veterinary treatment and minimize morbidity and mortality in populations; and procedures to optimize herd management to reduce methane emissions from enteric fermentation and optimize resource efficiency by increasing productivity, including optimizing age at slaughter, extending animal life by improving animal health, optimizing fertility rates, where high fertility rates contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, good livestock feeding practices should be pursued - practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the treatment of compound feed; dietary practices that reduce methane emissions from enteric fermentation of ruminants; and sustainable feed procurement. The Commission will continue to develop good manure management practices - anaerobic digestion; manure and manure treatment on agricultural holdings; suitable manure processing and storage systems for slurry or digestate; appropriate handling and storage of solid manure to reduce emissions and leakages; application techniques to reduce ammonia emissions from the application of manure and solid manure to agricultural land; and nutrient management practices that significantly reduce nutrient losses and fertilizer use.

The public consultation will only be open until 18/12/2020.
Public consultation is available here, more information here.

The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) has commissioned a study on the link between the CAP and the Europe Green Deal. The study was published in November 2020, under the auspices of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union and was prepared by the French Government's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment. According to the results of the study, it will be necessary to make major changes to the 2018 CAP reform proposals to bring the new CAP in line with the European Green Deal. According to the study, the 2018 CAP proposals do not cover the full range of initiatives that the European Commission intends to implement under the Europe Green Deal; According to the study, livestock production will be a problematic sector. Achieving the level of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture required by the objectives of the Green Deal would require significant regulation of non-CO2 emissions through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), or through the introduction of higher levels of taxation while seeking innovative technical solutions. According to the study, this poses significant adaptation challenges, especially for the livestock sector, which needs to be monitored and supported economically and technically. Although the CAP proposals contain some measures to strengthen the sustainability of livestock production, the real ambitions in setting up eco-schemes and agri-environmental measures will depend on the approach of the Member States. However, according to the study, they do not always give sufficient priority to climate measures in their national CAP plans. It will be necessary to change the eating habits of Europeans to improve health and reduce the impact of the food industry on the environment. According to the study, a change in eating habits must go hand in hand with the strengthening of technology, innovation, the reduction of food waste and losses, but also with the adjustment of production systems (these should be based mainly on agro-ecology). However, focusing on consumers and nutrition is one of the areas where current CAP proposals are lagging. Even after the presentation of the Farm to Fork strategy, the European institutions' opinions on the CAP did not link Farm to Fork's ambitions to the CAP; the same situation applies to other strategies, including the Circular Economy Action Plan. The objectives of the European Green Deal on nutrient leakage, chemical pollution and antimicrobial resistance include proposals to significantly reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics. However, according to the study, the CAP proposals are not sufficient to meet this challenge. Part of the problem is that targets are set too vaguely, precise quantitative targets are lacking, and decentralization of measures is left to Member States with relatively few vague guidelines and missing milestones. Measures on enhanced cross-compliance and eco-schemes should therefore be strengthened, legally binding targets should be introduced and the emphasis on achieving them should be strengthened. Maintaining the current rules would, according to the study, be a temporary victory for states seeking to protect conservative agricultural practices, but in the long run this system would be indefensible to taxpayers due to insufficient contribution to the creation of public goods. While legally binding targets under the Europe Green Deal and the Farm to Fork enshrined in the CAP could, according to the study, have a significant impact on farmers' incomes and rising food prices, these negative effects could be mitigated by efficiency gains, productivity reforms and major changes in eating habits. The study will be discussed by the COMAGRI Committee on 30/11/2020.
The study is available here.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg met with European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans last week. Following the European Parliament's plenary vote on the CAP after 2020, Thunberg launched a petition to withdraw CAP reform proposals, with more than 70,000 EU citizens joining the petition. After talks with Timmermans, Thunberg said that now is not the time to make small amendments, but that big steps are now needed to achieve the EU's climate goals. According to Thunberg, therefore, the only possible step is to withdraw the CAP proposals.
More information is available here.