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The European Commission has reached an interim agreement with Ukraine on the import of poultry meat. The 2016 trade agreement allowed a legal way of circumventing the customs fees for chicken breasts, which are a sensitive commodity for the EU. Chicken breasts with bones were not defined in the contract as chicken breasts, so the established tariff did not apply to them. The new agreement will prevent Ukrainian exporters from continuing to avoid paying for chicken breasts, but will increase Ukrainian import quotas for this product. Ukraine could export up to 20,000 tonnes of poultry meat, including chicken breasts, as part of free trade import quotas, and an additional 20,000 tonnes of chicken carcasses with less demand. However, not only representatives of poultry producers in the EU, but also members of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) are against the quota strengthening. INTA members said during the Committee meeting that there was a need to cease the EU import of Ukrainian poultry meat in order to protect European producers and farmers from unfair practices.
More information is available here.

In the upcoming week, the EP's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) will vote on its position on the Common Agricultural Policy after 2020. The main proposal, which will be in the case of the CAP Strategic Plans voted on, is the one by the rapporteur Esther Herranz García (EPP, ES). Among other things, García proposes a mandatory capping of direct payments over EUR 100,000, with the possibility for Member States to deduct 50% of the real cost per employee from the capped amount. Climate and environmental schemes (eco-schemes) and support for young farmers should be excluded from capping. Furthermore, Garcia suggests giving Member States the possibility to decide whether or not to introduce capping, provided that they allocate at least 10% of the Pillar I. envelope to redistributive payments. For coupled aid, García proposes to accept the Commission’s proposal and reduce the allocation from the current 13 + 2% to 10 + 2%.
An alternative proposal, in case the proposal by Esther Herranz García will not be adopted, is the proposal from the COMAGRI members from the political factions of the GUE/NGL and the Greens. Under these proposals, capping of EUR 60.000 is proposed, with the possibility for Member States to deduct 50% of the average staff cost from capping. Climate and environmental regimes and support for young farmers should be excluded from capping. The possibility to decide to strengthen funding for redistributive payments and then not to introduce mandatory capping is not allowed in the alternative proposal. Funding for coupled support should fall to 8 + 2%.
MEPs will also vote on a proposal by German MEP Albert Dess (EPP), who is proposing to reject the European Commission's proposal.
If neither the compromise proposal of Esther Herranz García nor the alternative compromise proposal of the Greens and GUE/NGL were approved, the result of the vote would correspond with MEPs' support for Albert Dess's proposal - COMAGRI's position would be to reject the Commission proposal.
COMAGRI will vote on the CAP Strategic Plans on 02/04/2019.

Non-governmental agricultural organizations Nyéléni Europe and Central Asia Platform for Food Sovereignty have published a report outlining the priorities of the organizations in the future Common Agricultural Policy. The aim of the CAP should be to protect and increase the number of small farmers in Europe, but according to the report, between 2005 and 2016, the number of farms up to 50 hectares has fallen by 29.4%, which are about 4 million farms. What the organizations see as a major problem is the distribution of direct payments from the CAP - according to the report, only 2% of beneficiaries receive a total of 30% of CAP subsidies. Organizations have supported investing more money in rural development and projects that support peasant agroecology; they have encouraged the introduction of mandatory capping of direct payments and supported redistributive payments.
More information is available here.

The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) calls for the introduction of support for vegetable diet among the CAP indicators after 2020. The Commission proposes the introduction of three types of indicators - impact, outcome and output indicators. Impact indicators include, for example, reducing the volatility of farm incomes in order to support farmers' incomes and living standards; the outcome indicators include, for example, the proportion of farmers using coupled support in order to aid sectors facing difficulties; the output indicator may, for example, be the number of farmers using supported risk management instruments. However, according to the EPHA, the promotion of plant food consumption should also be included among the indicators to strengthen environmental protection and meet public health objectives.
More information is available here.

From 27/03/2019, the Czech Republic abolished emergency veterinary measures to control beef imported from Poland. Emergency measures were cancelled after the Czech Republic received a list of established safety measures in the PL meat industry. However, intensive checks on beef and chicken imported not only from Poland but also from other countries will continue. Polish Agriculture Minister Jan Ardanowski sent a letter to the European Commission outlining the planned reform of the Polish beef sector. In the period from 21/02/2019 to 22/03/2019, inspections were carried out in PL in 227 facilities in total, 162 of which were classified as high risk and 12 were closed down. According to an official report, the European Commission has been conducting an audit of the entire Polish beef sector, which is part of the regular control system since 25/03/2019, thus it is not related to the previously initiated audit in response to the export of meat from slaughtered cows. The investigation will run until 05/04/2019.