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Ahead of the Ministerial meeting between the EU and Latin American trade bloc Mercosur, the European farmers’ organisation Copa and Cogeca urge the EU not to increase its offer on agriculture in the trade talks. Speaking at a press event, Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “The EU has given far too much on agriculture to the Mercosur countries in the negotiations, without getting much in return. A Joint Research Centre report shows a potential trade deal could cost the EU agricultural sector over 7 billion euros”.

On Tuesday 23 January Parliament's agriculture committee adopted an own-initiative report by Hungarian EPP member Norbert Erdős, calling for more action to protect and better support the European beekeeping sector. Measures in the report include increasing funds for national beekeeping programmes; improving bee health and better protecting local and regional bee varieties.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the transparency and the independence of risk assessments and scientific studies as a follow-up to its response to the European Citizens’ Initiative against glyphosate. The consultation is also based on the current evaluation of the General Food Law Regulation. The closing date for submissions is 20 March 2018.

Crops obtained by the plant breeding technique of mutagenesis do not fall under laws restricting the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) but individual EU states can regulate their use, an adviser to Europe’s top court said on Thursday (18 January). “The advocate general does not see any grounds deriving from the general duty to update legislation ... which could affect the validity of the mutagenesis exemption,” Michael Bobek said in a statement, adding EU states, such as France, could draw up their own rules provided they conformed with EU law.

The European Parliament political leaders green-lighted a special committee to look into the EU’s authorisation procedure for pesticides. The special committee is a response to concerns raised about the risk posed by the herbicide substance glyphosate. The herbicide had its marketing licence renewed by EU member states for five years in November last year. The full House will vote on the mandate during the 5-8 February plenary session.