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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.

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture supplemented its forecasts of the impact of the implementation of the European Farm to Fork strategy by restricting access to food at the global level. As early as the beginning of October, the US Department warned of rising world food prices in connection with the implementation of Farm to Fork strategy goals, in 02/11/2020 in its report "Economic and Food Security Impacts of Agricultural Input Reduction Under the European Union Green Deal’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies” the ministry elaborated the possible impacts in more detail. It addressed three possible scenarios - that the objectives of both strategies would only be adopted at EU level, that they would be adopted by parts of third countries, and that they would be adopted worldwide. In the third scenario, the EU is expected to ban trade with countries that do not adhere to the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies. The US Department of Agriculture states in the report that even in the first scenario, the impact of implementing the strategies will be noticeable in third countries. In the first scenario, EU agricultural production would fall by 7% by 2030 compared to the present, in the third scenario, EU agricultural production would fall by 12% and globally by 11%. According to the report, a fall in European and thus world production would lead to rising food prices, threats to food security, restrictions on trade, and a fall in GDP. The number of people who do not have sufficient access to food daily would increase from 22 million to 185 million if the strategy were to be adopted at global level.
More information is available here.

On 04/11/2020, the Commission launched feedback on nature restoration objectives in the framework of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. Based on the impact assessment, the initiative will propose legally binding targets for nature restoration to meet biodiversity protection by 2030. The consultation is open until 02/12/2020, available here.

On 05/11/2020, the Commission launched feedback on healthy soils in the framework of the new EU Soil Strategy. The aim of the initiative is to update the current strategy for tackling soil degradation in line with the biodiversity targets by 2030. The consultation is open until 10/12/2020, available here.

On 05/11/2020, the Commission launched feedback on the 8th Environmental Action Plan. The aim of the initiative is to create a new environmental action plan, which will be implemented from January 2021 and will be in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. The consultation is open until 31/12/2020, available here.