News

Seventy environmental NGOs have sent a letter to the European Commission calling for immediate action on double standards for pesticide exports. A recent publication by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) showed that pesticides, the use of which is banned in the EU, continue to be produced in the Union and subsequently exported to third countries. They can thus return to the European Union in the form of residues in imported food.
Letter from environmental organizations is available here.

Last week, EU member states approved the imposition of retaliatory duties on production imported from the US, retaliatory tariffs could reach up to EUR 4 billion. According to preliminary information, duties should apply to aircraft (duties of 50%), industrial goods (duties of 25%), and agri-food production (duties of 25%). Most agri-food duties, up to 80%, should cover processed production, in particular tobacco products, spirits, sauces, nuts, vegetable oils, wheat, sweet potatoes, coffee, and food preparations.
More information is available here and here.

Five EU member states (AT, BG, LU, RO, and SK) have reached a joint agreement refusing to ratify the EU's trade agreement with Mercosur. Austrian Minister Elisabeth Köstinger said that the EU's interest should be to shorten supply chains, strengthen support for regional food production, and emphasize sustainability. But an agreement with Mercosur would run counter to these interests.

The trialogues of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union on CAP reform will be launched this week, the first meeting will take place on 10/11/2020 between 16:45 and 18:45. The first trialogue will cover all three parts of the CAP package (Strategic Plans, Horizontal Issues, and the Common Market Organization). By the end of the year, at least three trialogue meetings should take place, one for each of the three parts of the CAP package. According to Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann (EPP), an agreement on CAP reform in trialogues should be reached by June 2021 to give Member States sufficient time to draw up national CAP strategic plans. Trilogues on the recovery plan (including € 7.5 billion in financial support for the second pillar of the CAP) are also planned for 10/11/2020. The trialogue on the transitional regulation should take place on 27/11/2020, and the plenary of the European Parliament should then be formally adopted on 14-17/12/2020.

Last week, a group of 27 environmental NGOs called on the European Commission to withdraw proposals for the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy to ensure that the objectives of the European Green Deal are met. According to environmental organizations, the positions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU run counter to the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, in particular because they allow the continued payment of aid that is not in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. According to environmental organizations, these aids include, for example, voluntary coupled support (VCS). Organizations also see problems in an insufficiently ambitious approach to conditionality. The European Commission should therefore withdraw proposals and submit new ones, one that will lead to a shift away from industrial agriculture and, conversely, to a shift towards sustainable agriculture, compatible with the European Green Deal. Due to the transitional period, which will be introduced for a period of two years, there is sufficient time to submit and approve new proposals, in the opinion of environmental organizations. The signatories of the opinion include BirldLife Europe, Compassion on World Farming, the European Environment Agency, Greenpeace, Slow Food Europe, and WWF.
More information is available here.