News

Norwegian company Kezzler presented its TrackEasy technology at the AIPIA (Active & Intelligent Packiging Industry Association) World Congress held in Amsterdam on 18-19/11/2019. TrackEasy was developed for the Dutch dairy producer FrieslandCampina, who is committed to ensuring full traceability of its products in response to consumers' demands for increased transparency and information on the origin and production of products. FrieslandCampina consumers will now receive product information through the scanned QR code, from the milk collection in NL, packing date, in-process quality controls to importing the product to the destination. TrackEasy technology enables the traceability of Friso products in 25 countries around the world; its future use for other large food producers is not excluded.
More information is available here.

The new European Commission plans to increase trade in agricultural products with African countries over the next 5 years, even more intensively than with China or the US. A representative of the Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture announced on 03/12/2019 that the Commission is planning to complete free trade agreements (FTA's) with African countries by approximately 2026 to 2030, as Africa has great untapped trade potential. Furthermore, the Commission plans to finalize the negotiation of trade agreements with Indonesia, Chile, New Zealand and Australia, and to implement the agreements that have already been negotiated, including Mercosur, Mexico, Vietnam and Japan.

The European Parliament approved the Commissioners-designate on 27/11/2019, the new Commission to be operational as of December 2019. Members of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski will be Maciej Golubiewski (PL, Head of Cabinet), Magdalena Majerczyk (PL, probably in charge of CAP), and Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle (FR, former Head of the European Food Safety Authority, Deputy Head of Cabinet). Giorgos Rossides (CY) should become Head of Cabinet of Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides, Deputy Head of Cabinet to become Director of Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) Annukka Olaja (FI, in charge of the Farm to Fork Strategy), Roberto Reig Rodrigo (ES, in charge of pesticides, endocrine disruptors, food contact materials and food labelling), also from DG SANTE, should be a member of the Kyriakides team. Animal health, plant health and food fraud should be handled by Ines Elise Prainsack-Ward (AT, formerly working for EPP), animal welfare, alcohol and nutrition should be in charge of Panayiotis Poutgourides (CY). Marius Vascega (LT) should hold the post of Head of Cabinet of the Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, and Carmen Preising (DE-RO) the post of Deputy Head of Cabinet. Daniel Braun (CZ) should remain Head of Cabinet of Czech Commissioner Věra Jourová (Values and Transparency), Juraj Nociar (SK) should remain Head of Cabinet of Slovak Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič (Interinstitutional Relations and Forecasting). The European Parliament's plenary approved the new Commission by a vote of 461 in favour, 157 against and 89 abstentions. EPP, S&D and Renew Europe voted to elect the new Commission, the Greens abstained, the GUE / NGL voted against.
More information is available here.

Finnish MEP Elsi Katainen (Renew Europe) has been appointed rapporteur for the report on the rules for the transitional period for the CAP after 2020. The European Commission presented the draft rules on 31/10/2019, divided into two parts - in addition to the general rules for cross-pillar transfers within the transitional period. German MEP Norbert Lins (EPP), chairman of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, was appointed rapporteur for the remittances report. Elsi Katainen, in charge of the main part of the proposal, stated that the rules for the transitional period must provide stability and certainty to European farmers, while ensuring that during the transitional period Member States and farmers have sufficient time, tools and financial resources to prepare for the upcoming changes. In this context, Katainen stated that the Commission's proposal to introduce a transitional period of one year is not very realistic; she supported a transitional period of two years.

EU Environment Commissioner Karmen Vella, who will hand over a mandate to Lithuanian Commissioner Virginia Sinkevichius from 01/12/2019, warned last week against reducing environmental ambitions in the negotiations on the CAP reform after 2020. In doing so, he responded to the proposal of the Finnish Presidency of November 2019, which proposes to allocate funds for environmental and climate measures from the overall CAP envelope, not the envelopes for the individual pillars of the CAP. According to Vella, this may lead to weakening rather than strengthening environmental and climate protection.