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The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) is working on an own-initiative report on an EU protein strategy, which aims to call on the European Commission to develop an EU-wide protein strategy and to outline the first outlines of what the strategy could include. The rapporteur is Swedish MEP Emma Wiesner (Renew), who presented the draft report on 07/03/2023. Wiesner proposed to call on the Commission to put forward an EU-wide protein strategy, which should focus on plant proteins, insect proteins and lab-grown proteins. However, Wiener's draft report did not mention animal proteins, which has been criticised by several European and national agri-food organisations. Other COMAGRI members had until 02/05/2023 to submit amendments to Emma Wiener's draft report. In the end, more than 700 amendments were submitted, a significant proportion of which called for the inclusion of animal proteins in the European protein strategy. MEPs refer, among others, to the Dublin Declaration and its follow-up articles on the benefits of meat production and consumption, or to the FAO report on the risks associated with allergies to new types of food, including foods made from algae, insects or lab-grown tissues. MEPs have also largely proposed to support the circular economy and sustainable livestock production and, on the contrary, to exclude proposals aimed at recognising the benefits of laboratory-grown meat-mimicking tissues. The rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs will now work on compromise versions of the amendments.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has confirmed that it is considering presenting a European protein strategy in the first quarter of 2024.
More information is available here and here.

Last June, the European Commission presented a plan to reduce the volume of pesticides used in the Union, presented national and European targets (European at the level of 50%, German targets reach 53-55% according to the Commission's proposal) and proposed a complete ban on the use of pesticides in sensitive areas. According to representatives of the German Farmers' Association DBV, this would affect at least 31% of arable land in Germany and 36% of orchards in Germany, leading to a fall in yields of, for example, 30% for winter cereals and 40% for potatoes or winter rape. According to estimates, yields could drop by at least 30% for vegetables, but the damage could be 100% in certain cases. According to estimates, arable farms could lose up to €450 per hectare in Germany, feed producers up to €310 per hectare. For farms focused on vegetables, according to the DBV model situation, there could be a deviation from the production of asparagus, onions and iceberg lettuce in favour of sugar beet or winter wheat, but even then, the losses could reach up to EUR 6,900 per hectare.
More information is available here.

At the end of November 2022, the European Commission presented a legislative proposal for the certification of carbon removal. The proposal is expected to contribute to several other targets, including achieving climate neutrality by 2050 or removing 310 million tonnes of carbon under LULUCF by 2030. Agriculture ministers discussed the Commission's proposal at last week's Council of Ministers, with French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau supporting the consideration of emissions reductions as well as carbon removal during the meeting. The aim of the certification is to identify and financially reward certain appropriate agricultural practices, ensuring carbon capture not only through wetlands, forests or permanent grasslands, but also through technological practices. The result should be a transparent certification framework that avoids greenwashing while increasing carbon sequestration in Europe. However, Fesneau stressed that the European Commission's proposal completely excludes greenhouse gas emission reductions, only sequestration should be economically rewarded. But Fesneau said progress must be made in both areas, and not rewarding efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the economic attractiveness of the certificates, he said. France already has a national certification system in place, and its national system considers both emissions reductions and carbon sequestration. Negotiations on the Commission's proposal are continuing in both the Council and the European Parliament.

On 25/04/2023, the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) voted its opinion on the proposal to revise the Industrial Emissions Directive. The European Commission presented the proposal in April 2022, proposing to extend the Directive to a larger number of farms, to include cattle farmers and to tighten a number of current rules. The COMAGRI Committee adopted its opinion on 25/04/2023 by 36 votes to 8, with 2 MEPs abstaining. COMAGRI rejected the tightening of the rules as proposed by the European Commission, rejected the inclusion of cattle in the scope of the Directive and the designation of family farms as ‘industrial farms’. The EP's environment committee (COMENVI) is also due to vote on its opinion at the end of May, and the plenary could vote on the proposals in July 2023.

On 26/04/2023, the Commission adopted a package to strengthen the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The Farm to Fork strategy set a target to reduce total EU sales of antimicrobials for livestock and aquaculture by 50% by 2030. Under the current CAP programming period 2023-2027, almost all EU Member States have already included measures to achieve higher levels of animal welfare and to combat AMR in their CAP strategic plans. A total of €6.3 billion of EU funding is earmarked to support voluntary actions in the framework of environmental and rural development programmes. In this context, the European Commission has highlighted the role of the CAP in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
More information is available here.