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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.
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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.

The European Parliament adopted on 28/11/2019 the European Parliament resolution on the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid (COP25), this resolution is not legally binding. Parliament states in the Resolution that the CAP should no longer subsidize activities that are harmful to the environment and the climate, including peat drainage and excessive water abstraction for irrigation, and should not penalize the occurrence of trees in agricultural areas; notes that soil's ability to absorb carbon further weakens its degradation caused by human activity, mostly as a result of unsustainable farming practices; and expects the European Green Agreement to set out a comprehensive ambitious strategy for achieving a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050 at the latest, including a target to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, calling on the Commission to adapt all its policies accordingly, particularly in the areas of climate, agriculture and cohesion. According to the Resolution, 37% of the EU budget is currently earmarked for funding the Common Agricultural Policy, so that substantial resources could be mobilized to create incentives and reward climate and environmentally friendly practices in agriculture.
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On 27/11/2019, the European Commission issued a regulation on the reimbursement of appropriations carried over from the financial year 2019 in accordance with Article 26 (5) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. It concerns the return of funds from the unused agricultural crisis reserve to Member States and subsequently to farmers. A total of € 467 million will be reimbursed to Member States, € 11 451 014 for the Czech Republic and € 5 973 155 for Slovakia.
More information is available here.