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Copa and Cogeca, Europe's largest agricultural organization, welcomed the vote on the CAP Strategic Plans after 2020, which took place on 02/04/2019 in the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI). Despite this, Secretary-General of Copa and Cogeca Pekka Pesonen said that the long-term position of Copa and Cogeca is to refuse mandatory capping and support only capping on voluntary basis. According to Copa and Cogeca, the accepted position of COMAGRI did not take into account the different structures of agriculture in the individual EU Member States in the case of capping. However, COMAGRI's position will in general provide farmers with the necessary security and support, in particular by maintaining direct payments and strengthening the definition of active farmer, according to Copa and Cogeca.

Organization representing young farmers (CEJA) stated that the COMAGRI position adopted by early April does not adequately support the generation change in agriculture. According to CEJA, more support could be provided for young farmers (CEJA sought to strengthen the allocation under Pillar I. from 2% to 4%).

Brussels think tank Farm Europe welcomed COMAGRI voting results. According to Farm Europe, COMAGRI's position is an improvement of the European Commission's proposal, while ensuring the right balance between the economic and environmental aspects of agricultural policy.

EU Foreign Ministers will meet at the Luxembourg General Affairs Council on 09/04/2019 to discuss the future of Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy. An important point of the discussion will be the question of the use of the 2021-2027 budget for EU countries that are in need and draw the most from the Cohesion Fund, as well as for countries that are below the EU average but are still approaching it. The proposal of the Cohesion Policy regarding its ability to respond to new priorities and unforeseen events will also be discussed. In the area of the CAP, issues will be discussed on how the CAP could support EU rural development in 2020 in the best way to guarantee a satisfactory standard of living for people in the agricultural sector, while increasing the productivity and competitiveness of European agriculture. Ministers will continue to debate about how to make the EU agricultural sector economically, environmentally and socially sustainable in the long term.

On 02/04/2019, the European Commission announced that it had started an investigation into the new Slovak Food Retail Tax Act, which was launched earlier this year. The new Slovak law imposes a quarterly retail turnover tax of 2.5% with a possible partial or total exemption depending on the size or geographical scope of the retailers. As a result, only seven food retailers are subject to tax, and six of them are located in EU Member States other than Slovakia. The Commission will now investigate whether the tax exemption selectively favours certain retailers over their competitors, which would violate European rules on state aid. The European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition has therefore issued a regulation to suspend tax collection in Slovakia until the investigation is closed.
More information is available here.

The European institutions reached a preliminary agreement on the so-called Consumer Package, which also includes the issue of dual food quality in the EU, in the Council, EP and EC Trialogue on 21/03/2019. Thus, the achievement of the dual quality clause stands for a very fragile compromise not only between Member States at Council level, but also between Council, EP and EC themselves. An essential element is the clear inclusion of ‘dual quality’ issues in defined unfair commercial practices, namely misleading practices, and through new legislation, also the linking of dual quality food with control and sanctions mechanisms. After the Directive comes into force, the European Commission will review its effectiveness for a period of two years and will, where appropriate, decide to include dual quality on the list of so-called black, i.e. directly prohibited, unfair practices. The Interim Agreement was approved on 29/3/2019 by the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper I), against were PL, AT, SK and DE. The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) approved the agreement on 02/04/2019 by 21 votes to 7 against. Subsequently, the agreement will be submitted for vote at the last April EP Plenary Session on 16/04/2019 and for approval by the EU Council of Ministers.
More information is available here and here.

The EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) adopted on 01/04/2019 a proposal for mandatory labelling with the nutritional values and content of wine, which was included in the report on the Common Market Organization of the CAP (see above). The EU wine industry, represented by the CEEV, welcomed the position of COMAGRI, according to CEEV representatives, the wine industry has nothing to hide, and has been seeking similar rules for a long time. Wine producers should provide information about the calories on bottle labels 18 months after the entry into force of the Directive; the information should be in the form of symbols that can be understood by everyone without the need to translate them into different languages. Information on the ingredients of wine should be provided on the label or online. After the elections, the newly elected EP will decide whether to approve the COMAGRI’s report for vote in plenary or whether it will be revised.
More information is available here.