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Germany will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Croatia from July 2020, but Germany's priorities will be significantly affected by the current coronavirus crisis and its impact on the EU economy. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic, Germany should pay attention to negotiations on trade relations with Great Britain following Brexit, the reform of the CAP, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the European Green Deal, the Forestry Policy, or the Biodiversity Strategy. If Croatia fails to reach agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework, the EU budget will also be included in the list of the DE Presidency's main priorities.

The European Dairy Association (EDA) has called on the European Commission to introduce market measures to support the dairy sector by the end of April 2020. Skimmed milk powder prices have fallen from € 2300 per tonne to just € 1800 in the last few days, a further fall in prices according to the association could lead to the use of the European intervention mechanism. In this context, Irish MEP Mairead McGuiness (EPP) asked Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, to address the situation immediately.
More information is available here.

Green MEPs Grace O'Sullivan (IE) and Ville Niinistö (FI), together with 22 other MEPs from different political groups, urged the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen not to postpone the publication of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which was already postponed from 25/03/2020 to 29/04/2020. According to preliminary information, the European Commission should propose extending organic farming to 30% of the area, reducing pesticides by 50%, or delimiting 10% of agricultural land to non-productive elements. According to MEPs, the current coronavirus solution must not be at the expense of other priorities, including the protection of biodiversity.

The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development will vote on the report on the transitional period for the CAP on 27-28/04/2020. The rapporteur for this opinion is Finnish MEP Elsi Katainen, who presented the draft opinion earlier this year. As regards the duration of the transitional period, most amendments sent by MEPs support the two-year transition period, with support for the prolongation of the transitional state aid. Some MEPs also supported the resolution of conflicts of interest (amendment 271), therefore payments should not be granted to persons in conflict of interest. French MEP Manuel Bompard (GUE / NGL) has sent a proposal to introduce mandatory capping of direct payments already during the transitional period, according to him direct payments should be 100% capped at € 60.000, only five working units reported to the affected person should be deductible farmer (amendments 366 and 267).
Amendments can be downloaded here (the first part) and here (the second part).

On 07/04/2020, the Council adopted new rules for water reuse in agriculture to reduce the risk of shortages of water for irrigating crops in the context of the effects of climate change. In line with the circular economy, the new regulation should facilitate the use of treated urban wastewater in agriculture, in periods of heat and drought. Member States may adapt the new Regulation to local conditions - they may decide that it is not appropriate to use recycled wastewater for irrigation of agricultural crops in some or all parts of the territory. The regulation must now be approved by the European Parliament.
More information is available here.