News

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.

The European Commission is preparing an impact assessment on measures to increase packaging reuse and recycling. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive requiring Member States to recycle at least 65% of packaging by 2025 should also be reviewed. At the same time, Dutch MEP Jan Huitema (Renew Europe) was appointed rapporteur for the non-binding report of the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee on the new Circular Economy Action Plan, which also covers plastic reuse and plastic waste reduction.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published an annual report on pesticide residues found in food in the EU on 02/04/2002. From a total of 91,015 samples tested in 2018, 95.5% of the samples met the permitted limits. Glyphosate traces were not found in 98% of analysed samples, the highest exceeded limit was identified in dry lenses. The report proposes several recommendations to increase the effectiveness of European control systems.
More information is available here.