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The EU-Mercosur trade agreement could be concluded in the coming weeks or months, this being confirmed by Jean-Luc Demarty, Director-General of the European Commission for Trade. Negotiations have come to a standstill because of sensitive agricultural issues, especially when FR had prevented some of the proposed compromises. In 2018, the EU offered the Mercosur block an annual quota of 99,000 tonnes of beef, which was considered - in particular by FR - a maximum. FR is no longer blocking negotiations on concessions in the agricultural sector, but the EU nevertheless demands that particularly Brazil improves its supply of car duties and rules of origin and geographical indications (GIs). The next EU-Mercosur negotiation will take place in Argentina in Buenos Aires in the coming week.
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The new Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture Olga Trofimtseva said that Ukraine is trying to gradually adapt to the Union's requirements for animal welfare and hygiene standards. The accusation of the lack of animal welfare standards and the lack of hygiene that has arisen in the context of the negotiations on a new EU poultry meat import agreement has been rejected and described as unfair and populist. She stressed that the expansion to the EU and other countries' markets is crucial for Ukraine to become independent of trade with Russia. She also said that the EU exported more poultry to Ukraine in the last year than Ukraine to the Union.

Given the fact that the European Parliament will adopt its position on the CAP after 2020 at the earliest this autumn, and that the EU Council will wait with its adoption for the approval of the multi-annual budget after 2020 (also not earlier than this autumn), the European Commission prepares rules for a transitional period before the introduction of the new CAP. Under the transitional period, which, according to the provisional information, should last between one and three years, the current CAP rules should be respected with the new budget. According to representatives of the European Commission, the new CAP rules could be ready for implementation provisionally between 01/01/2022 and 01/01/2024. Even if the new European Parliament adopted opinions endorsed by the EP Environment Committee and the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development in February and April 2019, an agreement between the institutions will be reached at the end of 2020 at the earliest, according to the Commission.

The European Commission will, together with the European Investment Bank, allocate EUR 1 billion to schemes for young farmers. The aim of the loan program will be to strengthen the access to the funds of young farmers under the age of 40 years. According to the European Commission, up to 27% of loan applications by young farmers are rejected by banks, while applications for loans from other farmers are rejected only in 9% of cases. CEJA, representing young farmers, welcomed the decision of the European Commission.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the review of the guidelines on State aid in agriculture. A specific framework of State aid rules has been introduced for agriculture, forestry and rural areas, which includes both the State Aid Guidelines and the Block Exemption Regulation. Both tools expire at the end of 2020 and will therefore need to be replaced by new guidelines and a new regulation for the period 2021-2027. In this context, the Commission is conducting an evaluation of the performance of existing rules and impact assessments, by means of a public consultation, in order to prepare the future State aid framework. Comments to the consultation can be sent by 19/07/2019.
More information is available here.