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The new Commissioner for Trade will be Latvia's Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and the new Irish Commissioner for Financial Services will be Mairead McGuinness (former First Vice-President of the European Parliament), as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on 09/09/2020. Dombrovskis has held the position of Commissioner for Trade since 27/08/2020, when Phil Hogan resigned from the position due to a discussed violation of coronavirus rules at an August dinner at a golf club.
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EU agriculture ministers met at the informal Council of Ministers on 31/08/2020. Topics discussed included the resilience of food supply chains, country of origin labelling, animal welfare and the transport of live animals, as well as the transition of the Common Agricultural Policy. German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner emphasized the need to achieve resilience in all three areas - economic, environmental, and social. Klöckner also called for the functioning of the single market to be safeguarded and for demand for local production to be reflected. According to Klöckner, farmers should be provided with relevant incomes, investments should be boosted and the EU's dependence on protein feed imports should be addressed. Klöckner also confirmed Germany's interest in introducing NutriScore as a food nutrition labelling system on the front of packaging. Among the German priorities for the presidency is the issue of animal welfare labelling, which, according to Klöckner, should be based on scientific grounds and should be comprehensible to consumers. According to the German minister, meat prices are so low that it is not possible to guarantee adequate animal welfare. The rules for the transport of live animals should be harmonized and strengthened. According to Klöckner, the EU should not export live animals to third countries. Ministers generally supported strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the agri-food chain and emphasized the importance of self-sufficiency in the context of the coronavirus crisis. Ministers were not united on the country of origin labelling; the main concerns were on the possible disruption of the functioning of the single market as well as fraudulent or confusing practices (example of Chinese adulterated honey). Ministers generally supported the introduction of animal welfare labelling but stressed the need for scientific evidence. According to the Commissioner for Agriculture, the European Commission could carry out a study on animal welfare labelling in the first half of 2021. Ministers also called for a revision of the legislation on the transport of live animals. Prior to the ministerial meeting, Germany and the Czech Republic supported a two-year transition period for the CAP, while France supported a one-year transition period. If a two-year transitional period is approved, France could seek to derogate and implement the new CAP after only one year of the transitional period.

Hundreds of environmentalists protested during the Council of Ministers, calling for radical changes to the CAP to better support climate neutrality and allow more investment in organic farming methods (here).

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On 04/09/2020, the European Commission launched two public consultations on organic farming - action plan for the development of EU organic production. Under the Green Deal, the Commission set a target of achieving at least 25% of agricultural land under organic farming. According to the Commission, the forthcoming action plan will help consumers, farmers, businesses, Member State governments and local authorities to achieve this goal. It will support investment and innovation in sustainable agriculture; will respond to the increased consumer interest in organic food; and increase the demand for organic food. The consultation also includes a three-page roadmap. According to the Commission, the new action plan should complement the new Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production (implementation of the new regulation has been postponed for a year – new entry into force until 01/01/2022). The consultation on the roadmap is open until 23/10/2020, the consultation on the planned action plan is open until 27/11/2020. The new action plan should be adopted in early 2021. It should help boost the growth of the sector, both on the demand and supply side.
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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.