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Germany has confirmed further cases of African swine fever (ASF), and ASF continues to be confirmed only in the previously affected area of Brandenburg. As of 23/10/2020, all 91 cases had been confirmed in feral pigs. The German Ministry of Agriculture supports the construction of fencing on the Polish side to create a "white zone" in which no wild boar would occur. Minister of Agriculture Julie Klöckner provided financial support from the EU in the form of co-financing of measures to support the eradication of the disease and the construction of a fence. Commercial pig farms in Germany have not yet been affected.
More information is available here.

Last week, political factions and groups of MEPs tabled new amendments to the various CAP reform packages. A total of 1358 amendments were tabled to the CAP Strategic Plans, 726 of which are opinions approved by the AGRI Committee in April 2019. Thus, more than 600 amendments were newly tabled. Some of them were submitted within the compromises of political factions (EPP, S&D, Renew), some of them were submitted by political factions without the support of other factions. Amendments could also be tabled by groups of at least 38 MEPs. A total of 303 amendments were tabled to the CAP horizontal regulation (206 of which were adopted by the AGRI Committee in 2019), and 281 amendments were tabled to the Common Market Organization (228 of which were in 2019). The plenary will vote on the amendments from Wednesday to Friday 21-23/10/2020, it is not yet clear whether it will be possible to complete the vote by this deadline. According to Copa and Cogeca, there is a danger of postponing the vote on one of the packages (probably to the Common Market Organization) to the November plenary. This would delay the start of trialogue negotiations between the European Parliament, the Commission, and the Council. The EU Council could adopt an opinion on the CAP as early as 19/10/2020 at the planned ministerial meeting in Luxembourg.
Amendments to individual packages are available here, here and here, EP plenary program here.

MEPs have tabled several amendments to the CAP Strategic Plans package, which concern, inter alia, the definition of a real farmer, the implementation of capping, the amount of coupled support, and allocations to agri-environmental measures.

Last year, a draft opinion of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development was submitted to the genuine farmer, which calls for a mandatory definition of the real farmer according to the criterion of the share of agricultural activities in the total activities of the holding, while Member States should be allowed to exclude from this definition individuals or companies that process agricultural commodities on a large scale. If a Member State acceded to this, these individuals and companies would not be real farmers and would not be eligible for CAP support. The GUE / NGL, EPP and Renew factions have also recently expressed support for this opinion, with EPP and Renew proposing that, in addition to the definition, a real (active) farmer be any natural or legal person or group of legal or natural persons carrying out at least a minimum level of agricultural activity, and which contribute to public goods in line with CAP objectives. The only political faction that has favoured the voluntary implementation of the definition is the I&D faction.

On the capping of direct payments, the AGRI Committee's opinion from last year was also submitted, i.e. a proposal for mandatory capping over €100,000 for all direct payments except eco-schemes and support for young farmers, with the possibility of voluntarily deducting actual staff costs of up to 50%. Where a Member State introduces a redistributive payment of at least 10%, it need not introduce mandatory capping. This proposal was complemented by a new EPP opinion, supported by several other MEPs, which now requires at least 12% instead of 10%. Also new in the EPP opinion is the proposal for the European Commission to collect information on all subsidies received from the first and second pillars of the CAP and to aggregate the total amount received by a natural person either directly through direct payments or indirectly as the beneficial owner of legal entities, which are the recipients of CAP payments (from direct payments and payments from rural development). Under this proposal, the Commission should monitor and suspend in real time payments more than a total of €500,000 in the first pillar for direct payments and €1,000,000 for investments under the second pillar. This part is expected to be voted on separately. The S&D faction proposes a capping of €60,000, with a voluntary deduction of 50% of actual staff costs, excluding payments to young farmers and eco-schemes. The S&D also proposes a voluntary capping approach, provided that the Member State introduces a redistributive payment of at least 12%. The Renew faction has not tabled an amendment to the issue of capping, and according to the information available, majority support from this faction is expected to the AGRI Committee's proposal. The GUE / NGL proposal then proposes the possibility of even harder capping than S&D, with progressive degressivity above €40,000, with full capping above €60,000, with the possibility of voluntary deduction of staff costs. The only faction that has submitted a proposal for voluntary capping is the I&D faction.

Voluntary coupled support is likely to be reduced in the Parliament's opinion, with the political factions EPP, S&D and Renew supporting the opinion of the AGRI Committee from 2019, i.e. an allocation of 10 + 2%. The Greens are aiming to reduce them to 8 + 2% in their amendments, and the I&D political group is the only one to propose a reinforcement of these payments, to 23 + 2%, 13 + 5%, and 16 + 4%. The members of the Renew faction are expected to vote freely on this sensitive issue.

Allocation for agri-environmental measures in the second pillar should reach 35%, with ANC payments up to 40% being included in this amount. This view has been reached in the EPP, S&D, and Renewable compromises and therefore has a good chance of being approved in plenary. The Greens' political faction proposes to allocate at least 50% of the CAP second pillar. The EPP, S&D, and Renew political factions also agreed that at least 60% of the envelope for the first pillar should be allocated in aggregate to basic income support for sustainability (payment per hectare), redistributive payments, and voluntary coupled payments. For eco-schemes, at least 30% of the envelope for the first pillar should be allocated, the mandatory redistributive payment should reach at least 6%. The Green and GUE / NGL political factions propose to allocate 50% of the envelope for the first pillar to payments per hectare, redistributive payments, and coupled payments. At least 40% of the envelope for the first pillar should be earmarked for eco-schemes, the redistributive payment should be at least 30%. According to the Greens, the allocation for eco-schemes should be gradually increased to reach at least 50% of the envelope in 2027.

A proposal to completely reject the European Commission's proposal was also submitted, supported by the Greens and parts of the MEPs of the S&D political faction. This proposal will be voted first, in case the proposal is rejected, the plenary will continue to vote on the other proposals. If the proposal is adopted, Parliament's opinion would be to reject the European Commission's 2018 proposal.

The meeting of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries will take place on 19-20/10/2020 in Luxembourg. The aim of the October Council is to reach a political agreement on a legislative package on the future shape of the CAP. Under this item, the PL delegation will also inform about the outcomes of the ministerial conference held in Poznan on 27-29 September 2020. The afternoon program will be opened by the Presidency on the adoption of Council conclusions on the Farm to Fork Strategy and, under Miscellaneous items, will first inform the ES Delegation on measures in the beef and veal sector following the COVID-19 crisis, then the FR Delegation on local slaughter and processing activities, and finally, the RO delegation will present a request to postpone the application of the Animal Health Regulation (2016/429) for one year. A political agreement will also be discussed within the Council on a proposal for a Council Regulation fixing for 2021 the fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks applicable in the Baltic Sea.
More information is available here.

The European Commission held its first Farm to Fork Conference last week, which should take place regularly once a year. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans emphasized in the introduction that food in the EU is sold at too low prices, saying that food prices should reflect the real cost of food production. According to him, the European Union must be a world leader in food and agricultural sustainability, he also supported food labelling informing consumers about the impact of production on deforestation. Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said food labelling would be one of the key initiatives of the Farm to Fork strategy, and Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski emphasized the need to reflect the different starting positions of Member States. Wojciechowski supported the shortening of supply chains as well as the reduction of long transports of live animals and the labelling of animal welfare. MEP Herbert Dorfmann (IT, EPP, AGRI Committee Rapporteur for the F2F) said that the strategy was 80% aimed at farmers and that there was no emphasis on consumers, he rejected the introduction of NutriScore nutrition labelling. Dutch MEP Anja Hazekamp (GUE / NGL, ENVI Committee Rapporteur for the F2F) criticized intensive livestock production, refused support for long transports of live animals, refused support for cage farming and called for an accelerated revision of animal welfare legislation (the Commission plans to year 2023). Hazekamp also called for an end to support for unsustainable nutritional patterns and refused further support for dairy and meat products through EU CAP promotion programs. Like Timmermans, she responded to food prices, which she also described as too low, and called for food to be sold at "real" prices.
More information is available here.