News

On 01/07/2020, Germany took over the Presidency of the Council after Croatia. German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner said that Germany would work towards a general agreement on CAP reform by October 2020. An agreement on the CAP could only be reached once an agreement was reached on the Multiannual Financial Framework, which Germany wants to reach by the end of August 2020 at the latest. The final agreement on the CAP transition period (partially reached on 30/06/2020) should be reached in mid-November 2020. Regarding the new Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies, Klöckner said that it would be necessary to examine whether achieving the targets, including a 50% reduction in pesticides or a 20% reduction in fertilizers, was economically feasible. According to Klöckner, the different starting situations of the Member States must be considered, and an impact assessment of these strategies must be carried out. Germany will also seek agreement in the Council on an Action Plan for the Circular Economy, followed by its implementation. In this context, Germany could, for example, support a minimum proportion of the recycled component in plastic products. Germany has also included animal welfare labelling (support for European labelling) and sustainable food production among its priorities.

The European Parliament, the Commission and the Council reached a partial agreement on the rules for the transitional period of the CAP on 30/06/2020. The transitional period will be set at two years, and the new CAP rules should enter into force at the beginning of 2023. During this period, it will also be possible to extend transitional state aid in some Member States. The duration of multi-annual projects on organic farming, animal welfare and agri-environmental measures will be limited to five years. For a transitional period, the CAP should follow the current rules (CAP 2014-2020), but with a new budget. The final agreement will be reached only after an agreement has been reached on the Multiannual Financial Framework (provisionally 16-17/11/2020). German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that Germany would try to reach an agreement on the MFF during the summer of 2020, the first two months of the German presidency of the Council.
More information is available here and here.

Negotiations on CAP reform within the European Parliament continue to be slowed down as a result of a unilateral decision by the EP Environment Committee (COMENVI) to end joint work on the reform with the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI). For the time being, both Committees are looking for ways to continue work on CAP reform. However, according to European media, before COMENVI decided to end its cooperation with COMAGRI within Renew Europe, the EP's third strongest political faction, there was an effort to introduce a minimum financial allocation from the envelope for the first Pillar for eco-schemes (climate and environment regimes). Renew Europe supported allocating 30% of the envelope for the first Pillar for eco-schemes in the first year of the new CAP, and the allocation should gradually increase to 40% of the envelope for the first Pillar in the last year of the future CAP. The introduction of a minimum allocation for eco-schemes is also supported by the largest political faction of the EPP (Group of the European People's Party). Last week, COMAGRI President Norbert Lins (EPP, DE) supported the allocation of at least 30% of the envelope for the first Pillar to eco-schemes to help organic farming. Lins also supported strengthening the CAP budget and allocating new financial resources to meet the targets set in the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies.

Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said last week that the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy and the EU Biodiversity strategy could be revised if their implementation threatened to jeopardize Europe's agricultural sector, food safety and food security. The Commissioner rejected the tolerance of double food production standards (EU versus third countries), supported a ban on imports of food produced with pesticides, which are banned in the EU, and supported a move to support local production.

The United Nations (UN) has published a report on the impact of economic activities on biodiversity. According to the UN, economic operators largely ignore the loss of biodiversity and the corresponding economic costs. The UN is therefore proposing to establish criteria for assessing the impact of the activities of entities on biodiversity, the criteria should also be used when deciding on further investments. The UN is also proposing to map activities within value chains in industry (primarily the agricultural or brewing sectors) that could have an adverse impact on biodiversity.
More information is available here.