News

EU ministers of agriculture will meet on 14/05/2019 at the Council of Ministers in Brussels. The main point of the discussion will be the exchange of views on the CAP reform package post 2020. Another important issue will be the one of Clean Planet for All: A Strategic and Long-Term Vision for a Climate-neutral Economy - Agricultural Aspects. Trade-related agricultural issues will also be an important part of the ministerial debate. The ministers will further discuss the Declaration on a Smart and Sustainable Digital Future for European Agriculture and Rural Areas; they should address the ruling of the European Court of Justice on GMOs presented by the NL delegation. Last but not least, the BE delegation's report on the fruit market situation and the information from the FR and ES delegations about the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund will be discussed.

French President Emmanuel Macron launched a campaign before the European Parliament elections (23-26/05/2019) entitled Renaissance. According to the manifesto, France will seek to ban the use of glyphosate and cut in half the amount of pesticides used by 2025. The use of pesticides near water reservoirs should be banned completely. Funding for the CAP at the current level should be ensured, Renaissance therefore rejects the proposed budget cuts to the CAP, which would ensure the payment of higher incomes for all farmers, with most funds directed to small farmers support. CAP subsidies should also be provided to improve animal welfare across the European Union, while the allocation for “Greening” the CAP should be significantly strengthened in order to double organic farming areas and ensure that animals are not fed GMO feed. Macron's plan can also be supported by residents of other EU Member States.
More information about Renaissance is available here.

Latvian Minister of Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards supported balancing the level of direct payments to Member States in the European Union during negotiations with Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. In its CAP legislative proposals from June 2018, the European Commission proposed to ensure a fairer payment of direct payments through so-called external convergence, but according to Latvia, the proposed benchmarking rate of direct payments is insufficient.

The European Environmental Policy Institute (IEEP) has called on the European Commission to publish a study that IEEP prepared in November 2018 and that has not been published by the European Commission ever since. IEEP was supported by WWF, which has sent a request to the Commission to publish a study in the framework of free access to information, the Commission must respond to this request within ten days. According to earlier information from the Commission, the report should be published during spring 2019. However, spring ends on 21/06/2019, while environmental organizations had been seeking to publish the study before the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development voted on the CAP Strategic Plans on 02/04/2019. Prospective publication at the end of June is criticized by the organizations also in the context of the ongoing negotiations of the agriculture ministers at the EU Council on the CAP post 2020; they are therefore calling for a speedy publication of the study that could then be made available to ministers.

Copa and Cogeca, Europe's largest agricultural organization, launched a campaign called WeFarm4EU (we farm for the EU) on 06/05/2019, the aim of the campaign is to support European agriculture and its importance while encouraging the agricultural community to participate in the European Parliament elections taking place between 23-26/05/2019 (in the Czech Republic 24-25/05/2019). The campaign focuses on four key areas - the future of the agricultural sector, environmental protection, the promotion of economic growth, and the creation of living rural areas. Agriculture is, according to Copa and Cogeca, a key to a number of social, political, environmental and economic challenges in the EU. But according to Secretary General Pekka Pesonen, an adequate budget must be ensured in order to tackle all the challenges the EU agricultural sector faces, the decline in the budget would cause significant negative impacts, according to Pesonen. He said that the current MFF negotiation, which is the EU budget after 2020, should be completed in the second half of this year under the Finnish Presidency. Furthermore, Pesonen has promoted the role of animal production, which also brings benefits to biodiversity conservation.
More information about the campaign is available here.