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During a trialogue between the Commission, Parliament, and the Council on 27/11/2020, the European institutions reached an informal agreement on the rules for the transitional period. The transitional period should last until 2022, and farmers should also receive exceptional support of €8 billion of pandemic recovery plan. A total of 30% of this €8 billion will be released as early as 2021, and the remaining 70% in 2022. At least 37% of this exceptional support will have to be allocated to environmental and animal welfare measures. The crisis measures introduced in spring 2020 to help farmers during the coronavirus crisis will be extended for another six months. A final agreement will only be reached once the Multiannual Financial Framework has been agreed, which is now blocked by Poland and Hungary. These states refuse to make the payment of MFF funds conditional on respect for the rule of law. The agreement must be formally approved by Parliament and the Council.

On 26/11/2020, the European Commission launched feedback on the amendment of animal health rules concerning age-setting, disease control and import requirements. The initiative aims to abolish the possibility of determining the age of sheep and goats; to harmonize requirements for imports of ovine, caprine and bovine products; and at the end of the mandatory two-year monitoring period for herds affected by atypical scrapie.
The consultation is open until 24/12/2020, available here.

The European dairy industry has identified vegan dairy products as endangering the existence of the entire dairy sector. Peer Ederer, Program and Scientific Director of the Global Food and Agriculture Network, therefore encouraged dairy producers to join the meat industry to protect the animal industries from the spreading vegan trend. Eder's call for action was also supported by the European Dairy Producers' Association (EDA).
More information is available here.

At the November G20 summit, the G20 countries debated at the online summit on 21-22 / 11/2020 mainly on the current situation in the world regarding COVID-19, agreeing on the need to focus on food safety. At the same time, they expressed the need to ensure that the current health crisis does not become a food crisis. Furthermore, the representatives of the countries discussed the essence of proper nutrition, food sustainability and the agri-food chain, sufficient financing of agriculture, and ensuring sufficient food for the growing world population. In the Leaders’ Declaration, the G20 countries committed themselves to addressing all these points. They focused mainly on the pandemic crisis and related food safety.
The G20 statement is available here.

On 20/11/2020, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published an updated study on avian influenza virus, carried out jointly with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza. EFSA warns of a rapidly spreading disease in northern Europe, affecting previously untouched countries. So far, the infection occurs in BE, DK, DE, IE, NL, SE, and UK. The highly pathogenic strain H5N8 was detected in 302 birds, of which almost ¾ were confirmed in the northern part of Germany. On 11/11/2020, a national bird flu prevention zone was declared for England, Wales, and Scotland. Avian influenza has so far affected mostly wild birds, 18 outbreaks have been identified in poultry and 3 cases in captive birds. On 22/11/2020, NL announced the finding of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N8 in a poultry farm near Utrecht. 100,000 poultry were killed, so in total more than 500,000 poultry have already been killed in NL.
More information is available here, here and here.