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Meat was back on the menu during bilateral talks this week in Brussels, with Mercosur trade ministers and Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrӧm dining out. According to Reuters, the quantity of meat that Mercosur would have the right to export into the EU has been increased to 99,000 tonnes per year. In France, Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert condemns this proposal, recalling that French President Emmanuel Macron had already warned Jean-Claude Juncker that the quota of 70,000 tonnes was already a red line for France. Read the original post.

The European Commission and the member states have extended once again the authorisation for copper sulphate, a controversial pesticide used in organic farming, which is on the EU’s “substitution” list and its effects on consumers are still unknown. Read the original post

The Council, meeting in EU27 format, adopted supplementing negotiating directives for the Brexit negotiations, which detail the EU27 position regarding a transition period. These negotiating directives provide the Commission, as the EU negotiator, with a mandate to start discussions with the United Kingdom on this matter. The guidelines of the European Council (Article 50) of 15 December 2017 stated that transitional arrangements must be clearly defined and precisely limited in time. The proposed end date for the transition period in the negotiating directives is 31 December 2020. Read more

On 29 January the Council decided on a temporary change to the operation of the public intervention mechanism for skimmed milk powder. It did so by slightly amending the so-called Fixing regulation, which determines measures on fixing certain aids and refunds related to the common market organisation of the markets in agricultural products. The Council decided in particular to set the quantitative limitation for buying-in skimmed milk powder at a fixed price at zero tonnes for 2018. Read more

France will exempt farmers from a ban on using the weed-killer glyphosate in three years time where there is no credible alternative to the most widely used pesticide in the world, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday (25 January). Read more