News

European Parliament adopted a resolution on women and their roles in rural areas. Text of the resolution is available here.

To encourage ways of boosting rural development, the European Commission has launched a call for tender for a pilot project on smart eco-social villages. Open for submissions until 17 May 2017, the aim of this pilot project is to find concrete examples and best practices to overcome challenges facing rural areas such as unemployment, insufficient services and depopulation. Learn more.

In the European Union in 2015, there were 2.4 million holdings cultivating 3.2 million hectares of vineyards. The average area per holding was 1.3 ha, however with significant differences between Member States. 2.5 million hectares (78%) of vineyards were dedicated to the production of grapes for quality wine. Learn more.

Palm oil is extensively used in food, cosmetics and biofuels, however the unsustainable production of the cheap vegetable oil leads to deforestation, loss of nature habitats and greenhouse gas emissions. MEPS vote on 4 April on a report by Czech GUE member K. Konečná calling on the European Commission to take measures to ensure among others the phasing out of palm oil in biofuels by 2020 and a single certification scheme for palm oil entering the EU market. Learn more.

The EU’s system of country-of-origin labelling (COOL), geographical indications (GIs) for agri-food products, and various sanitary and phytosanitary measures employed by the bloc have been named in a new report by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on what it views as barriers to trade. Report is available here.