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Last Week, Finnish Minister of Agriculture Jari Leppä said that the Amazon forest fire should to some extent be seen as an effort to expand the area of agricultural land in Brazil, which should warn all supporters of the draft trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur - fires and deforestation in the Amazon may, according to the Finnish Minister, be directly linked to this trade agreement. According to Leppä, such effects of the agreement are inadmissible. The Finnish Minister therefore proposes to impose strict restrictions on the import of soya and beef from Mercosur countries into the EU.

Ukraine objected to Latvia's request to the European Commission to introduce necessary consumer protection measures against the import of Ovostar's Ukrainian eggs after four Salmonella warnings had been sent to the EU Rapid Alert System (RASFF) since April 2019. Ukraine confirmed negative results in secondary tests, pointing out that not only the Ukrainian national authorities, but also an EU-accredited laboratory confirmed the safety of Ukrainian eggs. Latvia also criticized the fact that Ukraine has not adopted EU phytosanitary or EU animal welfare standards in line with the 2017 EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

Last week, representatives of the European Commission discussed the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on the EU post-2020 budget. According to some proposals, the College of Commissioners could provide additional support for the agricultural sector and small and medium-sized enterprises in the event of Hard Brexit. The financing of regions and the European research program should be the most affected; however, direct payments to farmers should be protected even in the case of Hard Brexit. The European Commission is ready to make available a number of existing market support and direct financial assistance measures for farmers to mitigate the worst impacts of Brexit on the agri-food sector.
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British farmers have asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a significant increase in tariffs on goods imported into the UK from other countries if the so-called Hard Brexit, i.e. the UK leaving the EU without an agreement, occurs. Already in March 2019, the British Government stated that it would raise customs duties on imports of beef to 53%, butter to 32%, and cheeses to 13% in the case of no-deal Brexit. However, the March opinion does not apply to other goods; therefore it is necessary, according to the British farmers representing NGO (NFU), to adjust the customs duties on eggs, some other dairy products, flowers and cereals, for which currently zero duties apply.
More information is available here.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, supported Poland's interest in obtaining the mandate of the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. Poland nominated Jaroslaw Wojciechowski, who currently works as an auditor at the European Court of Auditors. Wojciechowski was a Member of the European Parliament for the Polish Party of Law and Justice in 2014-2016 and a member of the ECR faction in the European Parliament. From July 2014 to May 2016 he served as Vice-Chairman of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. Given his work in Law and Justice, his acceptance as Commissioner Candidate by the European Parliament is expected to be difficult - in the past, the party has often been in conflict with the European institutions in the areas of law, migration or climate change. Support to Poland expressed by the President of the European Commission is disappointing for Bulgaria, seeking to obtain the mandate of the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development for their own candidate, Mariya Gabriel, the current Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society.