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Ireland has supported the maintenance of the CAP budget in the context of the required strengthening of environmental and climate protection. According to Irish Minister for European Affairs, Helen McEntee, it is not possible to demand anything more from farmers, while limiting the CAP budget. Nevertheless, Ireland has supported strengthening of the CAP's environmental and climate ambitions. Climate and environmental regimes (so-called eco-schemes) should be, according to IE, mandatory in all EU Member States.

The Netherlands has announced plans to allocate a total of EUR 950 million to support the target of reducing agricultural emissions by 49% by 2030. Most of the envelope, EUR 750 million, should be earmarked for greenhouse production, horticulture and livestock production, another EUR 50 million should be earmarked to support tree planting in NL. Farmers in peat meadows areas should be offered up to EUR 100 million to stop farming there and move to other areas. Additional EUR 28 million should be earmarked to strengthen sustainable land management.
More information is available here.

In the framework of rural development within the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Polish Ministry of Agriculture plans to pay PLZ 500 (approximately CZK 3,000) per cow and PLZ 100 (CZK 600) per pig per month to support animal welfare. In order to qualify for the support, farmers would have to provide farm animals with above-standard farming conditions, such as access to open spaces or large enclosures. The proposed system must first be approved by the Polish Government and subsequently submitted to the European Commission for approval.

Report of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) on dual food quality published on 26/06/2019 on nearly 1400 food products in 19 Member States (BG, HR, CY, CZ, DK, EE, FR, DE, EL, HU, IT, LV, LT, MT, PL, SK, SI, ES and NL) confirmed that food quality varies across the EU. However, according to the results of the report, producers do not sell deliberately products of lower quality only in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, differences also occur in the countries of Western Europe. According to research results, 9% of products across the EU have identical packaging but different compositions, while 22% of products have similar packaging on the front of the products but different compositions. Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, stressed that there can be no double standards in the EU single market. According to the EC’s statement, a call for proposals for food product testing was launched on 24/06/2019 with a total budget of EUR 1.26 million, to which various EU consumer entities can apply until 17/10/2019.
More information is available here.

The High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain, composed of Member State representatives and trade representatives led by the Single Market Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, calls on the European Commission to review the list of food that will have the obligation to indicate the country of origin on the packaging. Putting the country of origin on the label could have, according to the Forum, a significant impact on the disruption of the single market in the EU due to the preference of domestic products.
Report from the High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain is available here.