News

The 10th Summit on Food Sustainability will be held in San Francisco (USA) on 22-23/01/2020, in particular topics to promote the circular economy and sustainability of food production - regenerative agriculture, packaging innovation, reduction of disposable packaging, the recyclability of packaging materials, or the use of additives. There will also be a debate on the functioning of supply chains for organic food ingredients, which the industry still lacks. Further meetings on these topics are planned in Singapore on 30-31/03/2020 and in Amsterdam on 11-12/06/2020.
More information is available here.

Austria could review its plans for a total ban on the use of glyphosate before the EU license expires (December 2022); Austria planned to ban the use of glyphosate in its territory as of 01/01/2020. On 02/07/2019, the Austrian government voted to ban any plant protection product containing glyphosate, in accordance with the precautionary principle, and would be the first EU country to ban its use. Austria is now assessing the compliance of the proposal to ban the use of glyphosate on its territory with the European law, so it is not clear whether the ban will enter into force as of 01/01/2020.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) withdrew licenses for the registration of 36 glyphosate-based products and rejected marketing authorization applications for another 4 products containing this active substance. The volume of withdrawn products represents ¾ of all glyphosate-based products sold in France in 2018. France plans to introduce a ban on the use of the substance from the end of 2020.
More information is available here.

The environmental organization Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN) issued a report on 10/12/2019, which states that the European Union does not meet its own standards in testing the effects of chemicals disrupting the hormonal system of citizens (endocrine disruptors) as a result; it cannot protect human health from the effects of active substances. According to the PAN report, 31 of the 33 active substances concerned were authorized for use without any scientific test. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Commission were asked for their comments.
More information is available here.

The Finnish Presidency has presented a new negobox, a negotiating document for the EU post-2020 budget, proposing concrete figures for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) after 2020. Last year the European Commission proposed an EU budget of 1,114% of Gross National Income (GNP), The European Parliament calls for a budget increase of 1.3% of GNP. So far, the Finnish Presidency has debated a budget between 1.03% and 1.08% of GNP, and has now officially proposed 1.07% of GNP. Finland also calls for a € 10 billion reinforcement of the rural development budget. According to the FI proposal, at least 25% of the total EU budget should be allocated to support climate objectives. The Finnish proposal for external convergence is in line with the European Commission proposal of June 2018 (closing the 50% gap with respect to the 90% of the EU average), convergence should proceed gradually over six consecutive years, starting in 2022. For Member States whose payments are below 90% of the average, a new amount should be set to increase their payments per hectare but this amount has not yet been proposed by FI (referred to as "X" only). Capping of direct payments should be mandatory from € 100.000 according to Finland, but it should apply only to basic income support for sustainability (it should not apply to eco-schemes, support for young farmers or coupled payments), also 100 % of labour costs could be deducted from the payment before the capping is applied. For the first time, the Presidency is moving away from voluntary capping. For the CAP, Finland has proposed to increase the budget by 2.1%, from 28.6% of the total EU budget to 30.7% (but under the CAP 2014-2020 it is 35.4%). The proposal will be discussed by the General Affairs Council on 10/12/2019, followed by the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the Member States at the EU Summit on 12-13/12/2019.

Norbert Lins, chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, expressed his disagreement with the Council's decision on fundamental issues such as the capping of direct payments on its own without communicating with the European Parliament. Lins therefore intends to prepare a Committee resolution rejecting this procedure.