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The European Parliament and the Council of Agriculture Ministers are still working on their own positions on the post-2020 CAP reform. The European Parliament is expected to vote on its position in the second half of October 2020; However, the Multiannual Financial Framework agreed by the European Council on 21/07/2020 has not yet been adopted by the European Parliament. In particular, Parliament seeks to increase funding for climate and environmental initiatives. An agreement has still not been reached between the parties on the length of the transitional period. Parliament and the Council have long supported two years, and the Commission is now likely to lean towards a new two-year period as well. However, trialogues for the transition period are still ongoing. If Parliament and Council opinions on the CAP are approved during October / November 2020, trialogues on the CAP will be launched between the Council, the Commission and Parliament. However, negotiations on the CAP in trialogues may take several months, and the CAP reform is therefore likely to be one of Portugal's main priorities, which will take over the Presidency of the Council from January 2021.

On 01/09/2020, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, confirmed the work on plans to ensure food security in the event of unexpected crises, stressing the need for all actors in the supply chain to work together to strengthen it. Within the Commission, the responsibility for drawing up the plans should lie with the Commissioner for Agriculture. Wojciechowski said that during the coronavirus crisis, food supplies were never really threatened, but that the free movement of goods and people were restricted, which put undue pressure on the supply chain. Therefore, future measures in the event of further crises must be coordinated, according to the Commissioner; protectionism is not the answer accord to him. International trade will also need to be protected.

On 01/09/2020, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, warned during the Council of Agriculture Ministers against national country-of-origin labelling schemes. According to Wojciechowski, these can pose real risks to the functioning of the EU's single market. According to the Commissioner, the Commission is aware that, in the context of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, it will therefore explore the possibility of mandatory country-of-origin labelling for certain foods. The Commissioner said that consumers were increasingly interested in this information. Country-of-origin labelling rules already exist for fresh meat, fruit, vegetables, honey, and olive oil, and some countries have introduced mandatory country-of-origin labelling schemes for milk, dairy products, and tomato sauces. However, according to the Commissioner, these steps were not an ideal solution to social demand.

The largest European agricultural organization, Copa and Cogeca, has expressed its opposition to NutriScore, a colour nutrition labelling system for food labels. Copa and Cogeca expressed their full support for Italy, which, as an alternative nutrition labelling system, proposes a "Nutrinform battery" - system based on a powered battery symbol representing the percentage of the nutritional benefit of substances in relation to the recommended daily consumption.
More information is available here.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and EAT & Climate focus state in their new study that up to 90% countries that committed to the Paris Agreement in 2015 completely ignore the climate impacts of food systems in their national plans. According to the study, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by an additional 12.5 Gt CO2 per year by adding food and food waste measures to national climate plans.
More information is available here and here.