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Last week, Commissioner-designate for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that the Common Agricultural Policy should play a key role in the so-called European Green Deal, which will be under the responsibility of Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to achieve carbon neutrality in the EU. The CAP should be modernized, streamlined and simplified; it must reflect carbon neutrality commitments and cope with climate change; and should have a long-term strategy for rural areas. The CAP should also include targeted actions to address environmental challenges, while farmers should be encouraged to reduce emissions. According to Wojciechowski, CAP support should be conditional on farmers better rotating crops or introducing appropriate plowing systems to enhance carbon sequestration into the soil.

Wojciechowski has been investigated by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for irregularities in reporting travel costs. Wojciechowski has already reimbursed all questionable travel expenses back to the European Parliament and OLAF stopped investigating the Commissioner-designate.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch candidate for the post of Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, will be responsible for the implementation of the European Green Deal under the next mandate, which should aim, among other things, to achieve carbon neutrality in the EU. Timmermans supported the introduction of the European Afforestation Program during the US Climate Summit, which should be implemented by EU citizens. According to Timmermans, part of the CAP funding should therefore be redirected to sustainable land use practices.

The Agriculture and Food Summit organized by the POLITICO news media took place in Paris on 26-27/09/2019. During the summit, a number of MEPs, representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture of the EU Member States, and other key figures in agricultural policy were heard. Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Faction Coordinator for Agriculture) said that the new CAP post 2020 should aim to end the payment of CAP aid to those who invest in land purchases without prioritizing land management. The problem, according to Dorfmann, is not in large farms if they actually farm, but in buying up land primarily to get EU subsidies. Capping, according to Dorfmann, is probably not an appropriate way to solve this problem, but the implementation of the definition of real farmer could help. Deputy Director of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture, Mihail Dumitru, in the context of the proposal to reduce the budget for the CAP, stated that it is always possible to do more with less resources if efforts are made and the available instruments are properly adjusted. According to Dumitru, the budget plan is realistic, while Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic Jiří Šír refused to cut the budget, while supporting the strengthening of the budget in order to meet the environmental commitments. In addition, Šír refused to have the CAP the same parameters for all Member States, for instance in the case of direct payments per hectare. According to him, the CAP should be a common policy, so its setting must guarantee comparable impacts on all types of farms in all EU Member States. Therefore, according to Šír, the capping of direct payments should only be a voluntary instrument. The incentive to introduce capping in order to limit the purchase of agricultural land by foreign investors without a primary interest in land management is wrong, according to Šír; the European Union should introduce stricter rules for the purchase of land by agricultural companies instead of punishing its farmers.
More information about the Summit is available here.

On 20/09/2019, the German government published an action plan against climate change, which promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of 2030. In 2007, Germany pledged to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 40% by the end of this decade, which was later said to be impossible. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that her goal is to implement the plan in a way that is economically sustainable and socially just. In agriculture, the new CO₂ emission limit for 2030 is set at 58-61 million tonnes of CO₂ per year. The combination of measures is intended to help make German agriculture more climate-friendly, with lower nitrogen surpluses and lower livestock emissions. Measures will also be taken to protect sustainable forest management and reduction in food waste, in line with the Climate Action Plan.
More information is available here.

Nestlé Food Company has rejected the suspicion of dual quality in self-produced foodstuffs in Romania, namely the different proportions of coffee, cream and sugar ingredients in Nescafé 3 in 1. According to a report by the Romanian Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC), the accusation of the intention of Nestlé to produce a product with a different composition for the Romanian market is valid. Nestlé justified the different proportions of the ingredients in the product by local consumer preferences in Romania and stated that the differences are not an example of the differences in production for the Eastern and Western markets. A study by ANPC of 79 products marketed both in Romania and in other EU Member States has revealed that 22.7% of the products tested have different composition, proportion of ingredients or nutritional value.
More information is available here.