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Under its Presidency, Croatia looks forward to the approval of the first part of the Commission proposal for a transitional period towards the post-2020 CAP during the January Ministerial Council on 27/01/2020. The first part of the proposal concerns flexibility and redeployment between the first and second pillar of the CAP. The Croatian Minister of Agriculture Marija Vučkovic said that Croatia will do its utmost to approve the proposal as soon as possible, in order to avoid delaying payments to farmers during 2021. No amendments are tabled in the proposal, the approval should be a formality. The second part of the proposal, covering inter alia the length of the transitional period, could then be approved in the spring, probably during the April Council of Ministers. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission could then reach agreement in the framework of the trialogues as early as mid-2020.
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The Ministers of Agriculture of France (Didier Guillaume), Germany (Julia Klöckner) and Spain (Luis Planas) stressed in their common position the need to ensure food security in the EU, the development of rural areas and the viability of EU farms. According to their common position, EU agricultural policy should contribute more to the protection of the environment and the climate and should also play a key role in achieving the 2050 carbon neutrality target. According to FR, ES and DE, a smaller number of outcome indicators (ideally only one for each specific CAP objective) should be included in the CAP. Cross-compliance should be a cornerstone of the whole policy and should be applied fairly to all farming systems, but controls should be adapted to small farmers. Eco-schemes should be mandatory for Member States, and farmers could use them on a voluntary basis. A protein crop strategy should also be developed at EU level.
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The agricultural priorities of the new government in Spain will include setting trade (and customs) relations with the US, ensuring an adequate budget for the CAP and supporting young farmers and women in the agricultural sector. Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas said that Spain plans to send the draft of the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan to the European Commission for approval in July 2020; consequently, this proposal should be presented outside the Commission in early 2021.

Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said during the Green Week that the Farm to Fork Strategy will also include a proposal governing genetic engineering. According to Kyriakides, the European Commission is assessing the current situation. In addition, the strategy should include binding targets on both the use and risks associated with the use of pesticides, as well as labelling measures based on the origin of the ingredients and the nutritional value. German Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner supported the use of new breeding techniques, including genetic engineering. Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski supported the introduction of mandatory animal welfare standards, while farmers strengthening welfare conditions should be more supported by CAP resources. In this context, Wojciechowski supported the provision of an adequate budget for the CAP. The Commissioner also stressed that 52% of EU land is owned by only 3% of farmers and therefore he wants to review the current situation in each Member State.

Consumers are relatively indifferent to the emergence of dual-quality food on the market, according to the latest study conducted by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). According to the results of the JRC, most EU consumers do not distinguish whether foods sold in their country contain a different composition from products of the same brand in another Member State. The JRC study consists of four sections on the economic impact of dual-quality food sales, one report based on a survey of 10,600 consumers in six EU countries (DE, HU, LV, SE, ES and RO) and 6 different foods to assess willingness to pay for different versions of the same food brands. In most cases (23 out of 30) consumers did not observe the differences between the national version and the version from another EU country. According to the results of the study, dual quality plays only a minimal role in consumer preferences, and consumers do not pay attention to comparing compositions. The JRC study is not yet publicly available.