News

The Commission's agricultural and rural development department published today a market brief on the topic, describing the current state of risk management in European agriculture. Among the existing tools, the EU's common agricultural policy proposes a series of instruments to manage risks of different type and scale. However one of the main obstacles is the low uptake of these varied tools by farmers. More information

Commissioner Barnier hold a press release on key developments and outcomes of the third round of the Brexit negotiations. There was a progress on the question of a Common Travel Area, the most important issues related to trade issues remain unsolved and depending on the position of the UK, how to proceed with Brexit. Full speech available here.

The AGRI Committee discussed during its last meeting on 30 and 31 August several topics where the Brexit issues was reflected. Especially this was the case for the reports on trade negotiations (in this case of Australia, New Zealand and import of honey from China) and consumer information and protection (again import of honey from China and food safety – in this case of measures against the contamination of eggs products with fipronil). Brexit and specific trade arrangements are seen by many MEPs as a possible gateway to the European market, without full recognition of the EU standards for the food and consumer protection.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on how to make the EU food supply chain fairer with the aim of introducing EU-wide measures, if needed, to regulate unfair trading practices with respect to agri-food products. Farmers, citizens and other interested parties are invited to share their views on the functioning of the food supply chain through an online consultation that runs until 17 November. The public consultation is available here.

Customs authorities detained more than 41 million fake and counterfeit products at the EU's external border in 2016 with a value of more than €670m. Read more.