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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.
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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.
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The Romanian Competition Authority has launched an online platform to monitor retail food prices. The platform provides consumers with the ability to search for food at the best price or availability, so consumers do not have to physically visit stores to compare prices and availability of the desired goods. The platform does not work as an online store, it is informational in nature. Taken together, it provides consumers with information on about 30,000 products from more than 1,700 different stores. The aim of setting up the platform is to motivate consumers to choose a more favourable offer, thereby increasing competition in the retail food market.
More information is available here.

The countries of the enlarged Visegrad Group (CZ, HU, PL, SK, BG, HR, RO and SI) called on the Council of Ministers on 14/10/2019 in a statement to the Commission to increase the co-financing rate for the costs of fighting African swine fever (ASF). Co-financing is now based on each Member State's income data, which in effect reflects only a fraction of the costs actually incurred. The group also called for enhanced cooperation in research into disease epidemiology, focusing on feral pig behaviour, enhancing bio-safety, and enhancing public awareness of the disease. The opinion of the enlarged V4 was supported by Germany.
More information is available here and here.