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Last week, German Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner stressed that the new Common Agricultural Policy must set ambitious greening and environmental and climate protection objectives. According to her, it is important that uniform guidelines will be put in place across all Member States of the European Union in order to prevent any deterioration of conditions compared to the current situation. Eco-schemes should be mandatory, with a minimum budget to be allocated by Member States to eco-schemes. According to Klöckner, a mandatory minimum proportion of non-productive areas in agricultural land should also be set at EU level.

Eleven Central and Eastern European Member States will discuss the future of agricultural policy in the context of the European Green Deal on 24/02/2020 in Warsaw. Ministers of Agriculture should sign a joint declaration during the conference, according to initial information, one of the key positions could be to warn against the European Green Deal and its negative impact on the viability of European farms and farmers. According to the draft declaration, higher requirements for farmers and agricultural policy should be reflected in the CAP budget, the declaration rejects the reduction of the CAP budget. External convergence should be another key topic of the conference and support for its achievement as soon as possible. However, the conference will take place in Warsaw only 4 days after the extraordinary European Summit on the EU budget.

National energy and climate plans, which should include, inter alia, the expected development of renewable energy sources in transport, or plans to reduce emissions and greenhouse gases, aim to contribute to the European Union's green commitments by 2030. The European Commission has published national plans already submitted, but a total of nine Member States have not yet sent their proposals (France, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Ireland, Slovenia and Luxembourg). The European Commission has urged these countries to submit national plans quickly.
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The Statistical office of the EU Eurostat has published up-to-date data on the total area under organic farming in the EU. In 2018, 13.4 million hectares (7.5%) of the total agricultural area were used for organic farming, which is 34% more than in 2012. Most developed is organic farming in Austria (24.1% under organic farming), followed by Estonia (20.6%), Sweden (20.3%), Italy (15.2%), the Czech Republic (14, 8%), Latvia (14.5%), Finland (13.1%) and Slovenia (10%). Malta has the lowest share (0.4%), Romania (2.4%), and Bulgaria, Ireland and the United Kingdom (both 2.6%) Switzerland uses 15.4% of the land for organic farming, while below the EU average is Norway with 4.7% and Iceland with 0.4%.
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Annually, the European Commission launches calls for participation in programmes to promote European agricultural products, some € 200 million is earmarked for promotional programs this year. While farmers and producers consider this support necessary, the Green and Socialist factions in the EP perceive programs as illogical as they lead to increased CO2 emissions and air pollution. The Greens and S&D will therefore call for the end of all forms of promotion in the reform negotiations on the new CAP. Against this is the European People's Party (EPP), according to which the ending of public funding for promotion can destroy certain agricultural sectors and threaten the future of farmers. Approximately € 71.5 million has been spent on meat promotion alone in the last three years.
More information is available here.