News

On 15/03/2024, the European Commission presented a proposal to revise certain provisions of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with the aim, according to the European Commission, of achieving simplification while maintaining a strong, sustainable and competitive policy for agriculture and food in the EU. The proposals on cross-compliance and CAP strategic plans aim to reduce the burden of controls on EU farmers and give them more flexibility to comply with certain environmental conditions. The European Commission is proposing a targeted review of certain cross-compliances in the CAP strategic plans regulation.
More information is available here, here and here.

The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI) approved on 11/03/2024 the provisional agreement on a framework for carbon decarbonisation certification reached by the European institutions in the final trialogue on 20/02/2024 (see European news of 25/02/2024 for details). The agreement differentiates between four types of initiatives: permanent carbon removal (storing atmospheric or biogenic carbon for several centuries), temporary carbon storage in products with a lifetime of at least 35 years (wooden furniture), temporary carbon storage from carbon management (forest and soil restoration, wetland management), and carbon reduction from agriculture. The agreement therefore also sets out rules for carbon farming, which consists of temporary carbon storage and emission reductions, which should be incentivised by financial rewards for farmers. The provisional agreement was approved by COMENVI members with 56 votes in favour, 19 against and 5 abstentions. The agreement should now be approved by the plenary of the European Parliament, most likely on 10-11/04/2024 during the plenary session in Brussels.

The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (COMENVI) adopted its opinion on soil health monitoring on 11/03/2024. The opinion was adopted by 42 votes to 26, with 14 abstentions. The rapporteur was the Slovak MEP Martin Hojsík (Renew). Under the new rules, member states would have to monitor and assess the condition of all soils on their territory. Countries would have to provide three different levels of soil monitoring to give room to those who want to introduce more comprehensive systems. COMENVI members also supported the introduction of a system whereby Member States would have to upgrade critically degraded soils to degraded soils within ten years, while within six years they would have to upgrade degraded soils to moderate ecological status and soils with moderate ecological status to good ecological status. MEPs also supported the development of a public inventory of contaminated and potentially contaminated sites, no later than four years after the Soil Monitoring Act comes into force. Member States will have to assess and clean-up sites with contaminated soil that pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment. The costs will be borne by those responsible for the contamination. The text would be put to the vote at the extraordinary plenary session in Brussels on 11/04/2024.
Member States continue to negotiate their own position in the EU Council. The trialogues will not be able to start until the second half of this year, after the new European Parliament, which will emerge from the June European elections, has begun its work.
More information is available here and here.

On 07/03/2024, the European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA) endorsed the European Commission's proposals to extend trade liberalization measures with Ukraine without change. The Commission's proposal was approved by a vote of 26 in favor, 10 against, with one MEP abstaining. The European Commission has proposed to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on exports from Ukraine to the EU for another year, until June 2025, and to strengthen the protection for sensitive agricultural commodities at the end of January 2024. Autonomous Trade Measures (ATM) have been in place since June 2022 to alleviate the difficult situation of Ukrainian producers and exporters as a result of the Russian war in Ukraine. The autonomous measures for the coming year include a strengthened safeguard mechanism to ensure that swift corrective action can be taken in the event of significant disruption to the EU market or the markets of one or more EU Member States. In addition, for the most sensitive products, including poultry, eggs and sugar, a safety brake should be put in place to stabilize imports at average import volumes in 2022 and 2023. Thus, should imports of these commodities exceed the volumes, duties should be re-imposed to ensure that import volumes do not significantly exceed those of previous years. Despite the fact that a number of European and national agricultural organizations have criticized the inadequacy of the proposal in the area of cereals and oilseeds as well as the consideration of the years 2022-2023 instead of the earlier years, Member States supported the European Commission's proposal unchanged at the COREPER II meeting on 21/02/2024, as did the INTA Committee on 07/03/2024. The opinion of the INTA Committee will be voted on by the plenary of the European Parliament, probably on 13/03/2024 (final date not yet confirmed). While representatives of European agricultural organizations have criticized the decision, representatives of Ukraine have welcomed the decision and stressed that the extension of trade liberalization measures is "vital" for Ukraine.
More information is available here.

On 04/03/2024, the European institutions reached a preliminary political agreement on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which aims to address the increase in the volume of packaging waste generated in the European Union, harmonize the internal packaging market and promote a circular economy. According to the Council, the proposal addresses the entire life cycle of packaging. It sets out requirements to ensure that packaging is safe and sustainable. This is to be achieved by making all packaging recyclable and minimizing the presence of substances of concern. The proposal also sets harmonized labelling requirements to improve consumer information. In line with the waste hierarchy, the proposal aims to significantly reduce the production of packaging waste by setting binding targets for reuse, limiting certain types of packaging to single use and requiring operators to reduce their use of packaging as much as possible. In the preliminary agreement, the European institutions have decided to maintain most of the requirements for packaging sustainability as well as most of the main targets proposed by the European Commission (the Commission's proposal is presented in more detail in the 04/12/2022 newsletter). The Institutions decided to tighten the Commission's requirements, for example by proposing to introduce restrictions for packaging containing PFAS on the EU market. Regarding the minimum recycled content of plastic packaging, the Institutions maintained the headline targets for 2030 and 2040, but agreed to exclude compostable plastic packaging and packaging whose plastic component represents less than 5% of the total weight of the packaging. The Commission will need to review the implementation of the 2030 targets and assess the feasibility of the 2040 targets.
More information is available here.