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On 20/05/2020, the European Commission, together with the Farm to Fork Strategy, issued an evaluation of the EU Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods. According to the Commission, the objectives of the Regulation have not been met – specially to ensure that all food labelling claims are clear, accurate and based on scientific evidence. The European Commission was originally scheduled to present a proposal to set nutrient profiles & maximum levels for fat, sugar, and salt in foods in January 2009, but this was not the case due to Member States' opposition. However, the Commission has again included in Farm to Fork Strategy the setting of nutritional profiles of foods and maximum levels for fat, salt and sugar in the Commission's work program, the nutrient profiles should be submitted by the Commission during 2022. According to the results of the evaluation of the Food Labelling Regulation, nutritional profiles are necessary to meet the objectives of this Regulation and to ensure a high level of consumer protection. As regards health claims for plants and plant products (herbal medicinal products), the Commission states in the evaluation that only claims for products that are assessed as food are harmonized in the EU. In 2012, the Commission drew up a list of 2,078 health claims for herbal substances whose use (harmonized at EU level) has been suspended, but which producers can continue to use at their own risk. However, according to the new assessment, consumers continue to be exposed to unfounded health claims. According to the Commission, consumers can assume that health claims are based on scientific evidence (but the European Food Safety Authority has not issued any positive opinions) and that the risks of the possible use of these herbal substances are assessed and controlled. The Commission therefore does not rule out the possibility of harmonizing EU claims for herbal substances, including an assessment of the safety of their use.
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On 20/05/2020, the European Commission, together with the Farm to Fork Strategy, also issued a report on other uses and the presentation of nutrition claims on the front of food packaging. According to the European Commission, it is desirable to introduce a harmonized nutrition labelling system for food packaging at European Union level, not only the analysis of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) but also the Commission's consultation with EU Member States contributed to this decision. According to previous studies, nutrition labelling helps consumers make decisions about healthier food options and facilitates an overview of healthy foods. At present, labelling is voluntary, and a number of colour and symbol labelling schemes have been developed as a part of voluntary labelling (for example, NutriScore supported by FR, BE, ES, DE, NL and LU, including "heart" labelling - in FI and SI, or the "keyhole" system used in SE, DK, and LT). The Commission states that there is insufficient empirical evidence to assess the real impact of nutrition labelling on nutrition and consumer health, but that model studies show that labelling has a positive effect on consumer health. The European Commission will start work in the coming months to assess the impact of different nutrition labelling options on the front of food packaging, followed by a legislative proposal to harmonize labelling in the EU during 2022. It will be a legislative act, so its implementation will be mandatory.
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On 20/05/2020, the European Commission issued, together with the Farm to Fork Strategy a Fitness Check Roadmap of the EU legislation on animal welfare of farmed animals. According to the Roadmap, the revision of EU legislation should start in the first half of 2020 and should run for almost 18 months until the end of 2021. The revision of EU welfare legislation will be handled by the DG for Health and Food Safety. There should also be topics of animals kept for economic purposes, animal welfare labelling and the transport of live animals. The European Commission will aim to strengthen animal welfare rules and strengthen sustainable agricultural production, focusing on the overall effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, added value and coherence of the rules. The European Commission has already launched a public consultation on the revision of animal welfare legislation.
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The Council of Ministers of Agriculture of the Member States of the EU took place on 13/05/2020, the main topic of the ministers' discussion was the market measures introduced by the European Commission in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to help the agri-food sector. Ministers from AT, LV, LT, LU, PL, CZ, SK, CY, PT, BG, FR, IT, BE, HU, RO, and IE emphasized the need to strengthen financial support for the private storage regime and at the same time some of them together with NL called for the introduction of support measures for the poultrymeat, pork, potatoes, wine, ornamental horticulture and veal sectors - as a part of the second package of market measures. The Irish Minister for Agriculture has called for the activation of exceptional support for livestock production under the CMO Regulation (Articles 219 and 221), delegations from RO, CZ, LU, GR, BE, HU and BG supported the strengthening of support for wine and fruit and vegetables. The Austrian Minister of Agriculture supported the introduction of voluntary reduction of milk production at the EU level, the Italian Minister called for the strengthening of co-financing of operational programs. Ministers were not united on the part of the activation of the crisis reserve - representatives of LT and PL expressed support for its activation, on the contrary, LU, DK, IE, DE, AT, and FR were against it. Ministers GR and CZ called for strengthening the flexibility of the rules for on-the-spot checks, ministers HU, CZ, SK, and PL called for a temporary strengthening of voluntary coupled support (VCS). Ministers supported the need to maintain the EU's single market, the Bulgarian minister noted the pressure in the country to increase flexibility in state aid - farmers are asking the Bulgarian Ministry for emergency aid through state aid, but Bulgaria is unable to provide it due to lack of resources. Representatives of LU, HU, RO, IE, and CZ called on Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski to defend an adequate budget for the CAP in preparation for the revision of the proposals for the Multiannual Financial Framework. Commissioner Wojciechowski subsequently stated that the European Commission is not preparing a second package of market measures to help the agricultural sector, especially given the lack of funding in the EU. The Commissioner stated that for sectors not included in the first package, Member States have the possibility to allocate aid through the state aid.
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At its Plenary Session of 15/05/2020, the European Parliament adopted an opinion on the transitional period of the CAP by 549 votes to 124, with 15 abstentions. The rapporteur for the opinion is Elsi Katainen (Renew, FI), the opinion was approved by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development as early as 28/04/2020. According to the European Parliament, the transitional period should last for another up to 2 years (until 2022, unless an agreement is reached on the Multiannual Financial Framework and the CAP until 30/10/2020), in accordance with the current CAP rules, and should be financed from the new budget. The European Parliament has supported an adequate budget, and in the EP's view, internal convergence of direct payments should be encouraged during the transitional period, but not the external convergence. According to the EP's opinion, transitional state aid should also not be extended. The final form of the rules of the transitional period will be known only after an agreement has been reached in the trialogues of the European Parliament, the Council, and the European Commission, the trialogues will start on 20/05/2020.
More information is available here.