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Last week, the coordinators of the political groups in the EP's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI) decided to conclude joint negotiations on the rules of the new Common Agricultural Policy with the EP's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI). The COMENVI decision was unilateral, COMAGRI members criticized the COMENVI decision during the 11/06/2020 Committee meeting, and generally supported the continuation of the negotiations in the current format. The COMENVI decision was initiated by some COMENVI members from the Renew Europe and S&D political factions, while Renew Europe members within COMAGRI emphasized that the Renew Europe faction had not given a mandate to end the negotiations to any of its members. The situation is still being discussed, and the Committees are looking for solutions. However, there is a risk of further delays in discussing CAP reform within the European Parliament (the plenary should vote on the opinion as early as October 2020), as well as the opening of a number of articles, including an article on capping, which should not be reopened under the current agreement.

During the Council of Ministers on 08/06/2020, agriculture ministers discussed the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F). Ministers generally welcomed both strategies, but called for an adequate budget for the Common agricultural policy (CAP), and warned against the unsustainability of imports from third countries. Ministers also expressed uncertainty among the parties as to how the strategies would be implemented. Representatives of CZ, BG, PT, ES, PL, IE, GR, LU, HU, and AT called for an impact assessment. Representatives of DK welcomed the ambitious goals of the strategies, and also welcomed the Commission's willingness to support the introduction of a minimum budget allocation for eco-schemes from the budget for the first pillar, and also agreed on the allocation of 10% of agricultural land for non-productive elements. Representatives of IE warned against a decline in competitiveness in connection with the reduction of pesticides, with the allocation for eco-schemes, unlike DK, did not agree. Representatives of the FR called for the extension of the market measures introduced in relation to COVID-19 pandemic to include a private storage regime for veal, pigmeat and goatmeat. Ministers from IE, AT, NL, BE, and FI stressed the need to ensure income and viability of farmers, IT supported the strengthening of the emphasis on country of origin labelling, SK highlighted the role of forests. IT and AT representatives warned of the risks associated with linking the objectives of the F2F and the CAP - especially in the context of the risk of further prolongation of negotiations. At the end of the ministerial meeting, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides emphasized that sufficient quality data would need to be provided to monitor the success of the implementation of both strategies. She confirmed that the Commission would carry out an impact assessment on all the legally binding objectives of the Biodiversity Strategy and F2F, and identified the F2F Strategy as the beginning of a process of transformation of the EU food system. Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said that Member States would have to put forward proposals to reduce emissions from livestock production to help meet the goal of achieving climate neutrality under the European Green Deal.
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The European Parliament's opinion on the Farm to Fork Strategy should be drawn up under the joint responsibility of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI). This did not confirm the assumption that COMENVI should be the only committee to work on the opinion. Within COMENVI, Dutch MEP Anja Hazekamp (GUE / NGL) has already been appointed rapporteur for the opinion on Farm to Fork; COMAGRI should appoint rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs on 25/06/2020. Herbert Dorfmann (IT), Coordinator for Agriculture at the EPP political group, is one of the possible candidates for the post of COMAGRI rapporteur.

The environmental organizations Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and Friends of the Earth Europe published on 09/06/2020 a new study on insect populations called the Insect Atlas. According to the results of the study, industrial agriculture, which is dependent on pesticides and characterized by monotony in the landscape, is one of the main challenges for the existence of insects in nature. Organizations in the study state that 40% of insect species face declining populations and a third are threatened with extinction. According to the study, excessive use of pesticides endangers not only pollinators and other insect species, but also food safety. The organizations therefore call for a radical change in the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy, the elimination of untargeted direct area payments, the allocation of at least 50% of the total CAP budget for environmental, nature and climate initiatives, and the reduction of livestock production.
More information is available here.

The European Commission sent letters to all EU Member States on 20/05/2020, the day of the publication of the Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy, calling for the full implementation of existing European rules related to agriculture. The Commission is ready to take legal action in the event of further non-compliance. Germany was invited by the Commission to implement rules on the assessment of plant protection products and the reduction of tails of pigs.