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In April 2018, the European Commission submitted a proposal to address the dual product quality and the European Parliament adopted its own position in January 2019. Both of these institutions are ready to start negotiations within the trilogue of the EP, the EC and the Council. However, the Council of the European Union has not yet adopted its position and despite the Romanian Presidency’s attempts to secure the Council’s agreement, it might not be achieved before the elections to the European Parliament (23-26/05/2019), which could lead to further delays or total abandonment of dual quality issues. Finland, taking over the Presidency of the Council of the EU from Romania on 01/07/2019, has already indicated that it is unlikely that the dual quality of the products will be on the priority list of its presidency.

From 04/02/2019 to 08/02/2019, EC inspectors investigated the case of unsafe beef exported to the EU market from Poland. According to the report of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), which was published by Poland at the Commission's request on 29/01/2019, more than 2,500 kg of meat from illegally slaughtered cows was sold to 14 Member States (as we have informed previously here). In March 2019, the EC will publish a report according to which the Polish Government should adjust the system of veterinary checks in their country. The Director of the Polish Veterinary Administration will inform about the steps PL has taken in recent days at the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed on 11/02/2019 - PL plans, among other things, to submit a draft legislation to enable the State Veterinary Office to carry out stricter controls at the slaughterhouse. PL Minister of Agriculture Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski also suggested monitoring livestock transport in tracks, including within the slaughterhouses themselves, in order to reduce the risk of slaughtering animals without veterinary supervision. Food safety commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis called on the EC's website to introduce further measures to stop crimes in the agri-food supply chain. The Commissioner also said that Member States have so far failed to meet commitments on reforms after finding fipronil in eggs in Belgium in 2017.
More information is available here and here.

German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner presented plans to introduce a new food labelling system referring to animal welfare on Wednesday 06/02/2019. The system should provide additional information to consumers. Only meat products from animals with a better standard of living than the minimum lay down by the State will receive the welfare labels. Three levels of labelling will be available depending on the criteria - more space, longer breastfeeding, better living conditions at slaughter, and more. The labelling of foodstuffs will be voluntary; so far it will only be introduced for pigmeat production.
More information is available here.

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), which brought together 400 organizations, called for the establishment of a Common Food Policy, under which sustainable food systems in the EU should be developed. IPES-Food was working with farmers, food specialists and scientists over three years, based on which they then published a final report on 07/02/2019 (available here). The report aims to show the role of agricultural production in the context of global warming, biodiversity loss, or a growing obesity problem. IPES-Food, in the introduction of the report, points out that the food sector is not sufficiently reflected in the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy as it rather focuses on production than on consumption, while consumption fundamentally influences the environmental, economic and social impacts of the CAP. Therefore, according to IPES-Food, the Common Food Policy would be a solution.
More information is available here.

On 06/02/2019, the commissioners discussed the EC’s proposal outlining a list of criteria to determine which crops are suitable for biofuel production and thus to contribute to the EU's renewable targets after the year 2021. The limits set in the proposal should exclude those crops that cause deforestation and damage to ecosystems; they should not be further supported after 2021. The list of criteria was published by the Commission on 08/02/2019 and it should exclude those crops of which the sowing area has grown by at least 10% at the expense of forests during the last 10 years. In view of these criteria, support for palm oil should be avoided and soybean should be included in the list of crops suitable for the production of biofuels. The European Parliament now has a deadline of 08/03/2019 for comments on the proposal.
More information is available here and here.