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The Ministers of Agriculture of the EU Member States discussed the Common Agricultural Policy during the Council of Ministers on 14/10/2019. The Ministers of Agriculture supported the progress report presented by Romania (here) at the end of their Presidency and agreed that the new delivery model and the green architecture of the CAP after 2020 must be further discussed in the light of a number of technical issues. Finland plans to focus the upcoming November and December Council of Agriculture Ministers on the issue of the new delivery model and green architecture of the CAP package. Member States have not yet reached a compromise between the parties, such as support for small farmers, setting up eco-schemes or allocations for fruit and vegetables schemes. Agriculture ministers supported the strengthening of environmental and climate ambitions, but stressed the need to ensure an adequate budget for the CAP.

On the issue of setting up the definition of 'genuine farmer', most countries have supported the Finnish definition, which proposes not to take into account the agricultural activities concerned or the farmer's overall economic activity.

The ministers also discussed the situation in the market for agricultural-food commodities. The market situation is generally stable, except for olive oil (high stocks, good harvest, low prices), beef (constant low prices since 2018), and sugar.

The countries of the enlarged Visegrad Group (CZ, HU, PL, SK, BG, HR, RO and SI) presented a joint opinion entitled "Forests, sustainable forest management and adaptation to climate change" (here). According to Czech Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Toman, forestry should be more involved in the CAP reform, and the process of approval of state aid should be accelerated.

The ministers' discussion also showed:

Support for the introduction of mandatory eco-schemes – IE, DE, PT, FR, NL, DK;
Supporting flexibility/voluntary implementation of eco-schemes – CZ, CY, MT, BG, LU;
Support for the modification of the definition of eligible hectares – IE;
Supporting the introduction of a voluntary definition of a genuine farmer – IE, AT, MT;
Supporting the introduction of a harmonised definition of a genuine farmer – BE;
Promoting harmonised rules on capping (with some flexibility) – IE;
Support for voluntary capping of direct payments – CZ, DK, RO;
Support for rapid presentation of rules for the transitional period – SK, ES, IT, DK;
Support for maintaining VCS payments – BG;
Support for termination / reduction of VCS payments – DE, NL, DK, SE;
Support for small farmers to comply with cross compliance – DE;
Support for the exclusion of small farmers from cross compliance – MT, BG, GR;
Support for the exclusion of small farmers from the system of sanctions – IT;
Support for the voluntary introduction of redistributive payments – SI;
Support for the inclusion of ANC / LFA in the 30% allocation for the AEKO measures – SI;
Supporting the achievement of external convergence of direct payments – EE, LV, BG;
Rejection of external convergence of direct payments – IT, SI, DK, NL, HR, BE;
Supporting the strengthening of the role of interbranch organizations – NL.


More information is available here, here and here.

According to unofficial information from the representatives of the European institutions, the European Commission is preparing a regulation on the transitional period for the Common Agricultural Policy. The reformed CAP should be in force from January 2021, but neither the European Parliament nor the Council of the European Union at the ministerial level of agriculture has yet adopted their own position on the Commission proposal for the CAP of June 2018. As the discussions on the CAP and the budget continue, the introduction of the new CAP in January 2021 is unlikely. According to the representatives of the EU institutions, a transitional period should be proposed for a period of one to two years, but a longer transitional period is not excluded either. The Commission is preparing two regulations for a transitional period - one aimed at the period for which the rules of the current CAP will continue to apply; the second, aiming at a gradual abandonment of the rules of the current CAP and a gradual transition to the new ones. The first regulation should be adopted before the end of this year, the regulation on the gradual abandonment of the current rules in favour of the new rules should be adopted by the summer of 2020.

During the Ministerial Council on 14/10/2019, the Ministers of Agriculture of the EU Member States supported the strengthening of activities to prevent further deforestation. Current European policies, according to ministers, have not been sufficiently effective in combating deforestation in the world; up to 80% of deforestation is due to the expansion of agricultural activities. According to the Maltese Minister of Agriculture, about a third of European consumption causes deforestation in third countries, making the EU part of the global problem. The European Commission proposes to boost the consumption of deforestation-free supply chains in the EU, and to strengthen international cooperation and redirect the flow of finance towards promoting sustainable land use. Agriculture ministers welcomed the Commission's plans, according to the Spanish minister; a discussion platform should be set up to reduce the impact of the supply chain on deforestation. The Czech Minister of Agriculture stated that imports of products from third countries should not be allowed if their production process is linked to deforestation.

During the Council of Ministers meeting on 14/10/2019, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, summarized the Commission's activities in the field of food safety, animal and plant health over the past five years. According to the Commissioner, a strong legal framework has been created, and official controls have been harmonized to ensure food safety in the EU and protect against food fraud. Furthermore, concrete steps have been taken to ensure animal welfare, incl. the establishment of a Platform for Animal Welfare, and in 2017 the EU adopted the EU Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). However, not all Member States have developed comprehensive national action plans against AMR. A harmonized methodology for the measurement of food waste has also been introduced, incl. the EU Platform on Food Loss and Food Waste, options to approve food and feed donations, or rules for novel foods were addressed. These activities will be continued by the European Commission in line with the commitment to implement the European Green Agreement and the Farm to Fork strategy. Representatives of France supported the strengthening of activities to prevent food fraud and the introduction of a country-of-origin food labelling system at EU level. EU-level labelling was also supported by representatives of Italy, while representatives of Denmark supported the presentation of a new animal welfare law.
More information is available here.

At the Council of Ministers meeting on 14/10/2019, Belgian Minister of Agriculture Denis Ducarme called for speeding up the transmission of food safety information between Member States, due to the recent Listeria cases in some Member States - three people died in the Netherlands in this context. According to Ducarme, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is a very effective tool, but needs to speed up the exchange of information. France proposed to support the food safety initiative by indicating the country of origin of food ingredients.
More information is available here.