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Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said at the EP Agriculture Committee (COMAGRI) on 07/09/2020 that he would work to ensure that the recovery plan was released to the agricultural sector as soon as possible. The recovery plan is intended to rebuild the EU economy during and after the pandemic crisis, with the Commission proposing to allocate €15 billion to the agricultural sector. During the July European Council, this amount was halved. According to the representatives of the European institutions, the resulting €7.5 billion was to be committed only to the new CAP programming period, so that farmers could not receive the funds (in the case of a two-year transitional period) until 2023. However, COMAGRI members criticized the postponement of the payment of emergency aid, calling on the Commissioner to speed up the release of funds. In response to calls, the Commissioner confirmed the Commission's interest in mobilizing funds, stressing that the agricultural sector must start recovery now, not in two or three years.
More information is available here.

The German presidency is in favour of a rapid mobilization of €7.5 billion from the recovery plan for the agricultural sector. According to the Commission, the funds should be released at the start of the new CAP programming period, but if a two-year CAP transitional period were approved, the funds would not be released until 2023. The German Presidency therefore proposes to link this amount to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) already during the transitional period. According to the German proposal, the funds could be released already during 2021 and 2022. The written proposal will be presented at the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture on 14/09/2020.

The EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted an opinion on 07/09/2020 calling on the Commission to remove titanium dioxide from the EU list of authorized food additives. According to French MEP Eric Andrieu (S&D), titanium dioxide, used as a bleaching agent in, for example, chewing gum or ice cream, is a dangerous substance and its further use should therefore be banned. According to the Committee, this year's Commission proposal to limit the use of titanium dioxide is not enough, and the Committee also called on the Commission to withdraw the proposal and ban the substance altogether. The opinion was adopted by 51 votes to 11, with 16 abstentions. Titanium dioxide is currently being assessed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the opinion should be finalized during 2021. If necessary, the Commission should then consider tightening up the rules.
More information is available here and here.

The six largest European organizations of the agricultural and meat industry, including Copa and Cogeca, wrote an open letter on 09/09/2020 concerning the names traditionally used for meat products. Organizations require that "steak" or "burger" names be used exclusively to describe meat products, not their plant-based alternatives. Organizations consider the same labelling of plant-based and meat products to be misleading for consumers. The issue is now being addressed in the European Parliament, which in 2019 approved an opinion rejecting the same names. However, the new Parliament is reassessing the situation, threatening to change Parliament's original position, i.e. that the designation "sausage" or "burger" could also be used for plant-based products.
The letter can be downloaded here.

On 10/09/2020, German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in eastern Brandenburg near the Polish border. At the same time, it informed about the activation of the crisis management plan and the introduction of strict measures to prevent the spread of ASF, including restrictions on the movement of people and vehicles in the affected area, a ban on hunting or agricultural activities and a thorough search for cadavers. There is also a fencing on the affected area and a ban on entering the area. According to Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ASF finding will not have a significant impact on German pork exports, also because animal health standards in Germany are relatively high.
More information is available here.