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EU leaders early Friday failed to agree on nominees for the European Commission presidency and other top posts, and said they will reconvene on June 30 to try again. More information is available here.

On 18/06/2019, the EU Ministers of Agriculture will meet at the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg, the last one under the Romanian Presidency. The main point of the debate will be the CAP reform package of 2020 - a progress report. Within this topic, the ministers will also discuss the A.O.B. point, which concerns the Spanish delegation's information on the new CAP green architecture. Another important issue of the ministerial debate will be the discussion of the partial general approach to the proposal for a regulation on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the information about the current state of the Common Fisheries Policy and the consultation on fishing opportunities for 2020.

At the end of its Presidency, Romania will present on 18/06/2019 a progress report summarizing the activities undertaken in the area of negotiations on CAP reform over the past six months, during the Council of Ministers. Romania has sought to reach a partial general agreement on the CAP, but given the ongoing negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework post 2020, the adoption of a general agreement in the Council has been postponed. In its Progress Report, Romania states that it has provisionally concluded an agreement on proposals for the Common Market Organisation and for Horizontal Issues, a number of issues, in particular for CAP Strategic Plans, remain open through - be it setting direct payments including eco-schemes, or setting rural development programs. The negotiations on the CAP will be managed by Finland from July 2019 onwards, and during the Finnish Presidency, the Council will address not only the reform of the CAP and the Multiannual Financial Framework, but also the issue of the UK leaving the EU. In this context, according to some representatives of the European institutions, the adoption of the new CAP reform is likely to be delayed by at least a year.

Romanian Presidency Progress Report is available here.

On 05/06/2019, the European Commission published a draft budget for 2020, with EUR 43.5 billion (in commitments) foreseen for the first pillar of the CAP, which is EUR 340 million more than in 2019. Payments in the I. pillar should be around EUR 44.1 million, which would mean a reduction of EUR 93 million compared to 2019. Unused funds from the 2019 crisis reserve - EUR 468.7 million in total - will be transferred to the 2020 budget. For the second pillar, EUR 14.7 billion in commitments and EUR 13 billion in payments are earmarked.

More information is available here.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on 12/06/2019 that France would support mandatory food labelling NutriScore in all EU Member States. Philippe said that France's representatives will fight for compulsory introduction in the negotiations with the Commission and other relevant partakers in the EU. NutriScore uses a semaphore-like colour scheme to warn consumers about the sugar, salt, or saturated fat content in foods through a green to red colour scale. Belgium, Portugal and Spain also supported the introduction of this type of labelling, and a citizens' initiative was launched in April in order to collect a million signatures of EU citizens from at least 7 Member States in a one-year effort to promote NutriScore mandatory labelling. On the contrary, for example Italy is opposed to the mandatory introduction due to concerns about the negative impact of the labelling on the production of Italian cheese with a higher fat content or on the production of olive oil.