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The European Commission registered on 18/10/2022 a European Citizens' Initiative called "European Citizens' Initiative for Vegan Food". The goal of the initiative is to ensure that private and public institutions offering food and beverages in Europe also offer vegan food alternatives. The initiative draws attention to the growing awareness of animal rights, but also to the possibilities of contributing to solving the climate crisis by preferring a plant-based diet. Organizers now have six months to start collecting signatures. If their European citizens' initiative is supported by one million citizens from at least nine Member States within one year, the Commission must react to it and decide whether to grant the request and justify its decision.
More information is available here.

Commission will present a proposal, which will include a revision of legislation in the field of animal welfare, to gradually end the systematic killing of young male chicks. Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, called on other countries at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 17/10/2022 to support efforts for a European-wide ban on this practice, also following a discussion on the report entitled "A European-wide end to the systematic killing of young male chicks". The report was presented by the delegations of FR and DE with the support of AT, BE, CY, FI, FR, DE, IE, LU and PT. The ban on the killing of young male chicks is already in force from 01/01/2022 in DE, in FR it entered into force at the beginning of 2022 with a one-year transition period to allow farmers to get the necessary equipment and financial support. AT and LU also have bans on the killing of young male chicks to varying degrees. Commission has praised those Member States that have already taken appropriate measures at national level, while having a new impact assessment drawn up that considers the current economic situation.
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Last week, the European Commission published a call for applications for membership in the new mandate of the platform for sustainable finance (taxonomy). The platform is an advisory body composed of experts from the private and public sectors. Its role is to advise the European Commission – which is responsible for adopting delegated acts under the Taxonomy Regulation – on relevant issues related to the EU framework for sustainable finance and in particular the EU taxonomy. The call for applications to the Sustainable Finance Platform will be open for four weeks, the deadline for applications is 09/11/2022.
More information is available here.

The FreshProof research project, funded by the Horizon Europe program, in which several European and American scientists participate, is focused on the development of ways to reduce the waste of food and its food packaging. Scientists are mainly working to refine the dates of the minimum shelf life and the use-by date, to avoid the unnecessary throwing away of fresh food not consumed before the specified date. A team of scientists from the University of South Florida in the US has developed a system using multiple sensors and cloud-based software to better identify food shelf life. The scientists are convinced that with this innovation they can offer a much more accurate determination of the ‘best before’ date and prevent unnecessary food waste.
More information is available here.

The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF) voted on 14/10/2022 to extend the license for the use of glyphosate in the European Union for another year, until the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) can complete work on its substance safety assessment, and before that assessment is properly discussed. The EU license for glyphosate will expire on 15/12/2022, but EFSA will not be able to complete its assessment until then. The European Commission has therefore submitted a proposal for a temporary extension of the license by one year, until December 2023, which should ensure a proper discussion of the issue. During the vote in the SCoPAFF committee, the overwhelming majority of countries (BE, CZ, DK, EE, IE, ES, NL, PT, IT, RO, FI, SE, BG, EL, CY, LV, LT, HU, AT, PL, SK) voted in favour of extending the license for another year, only three countries (HR, LU, MT) were against, and only three countries (DE, FR, SI) also abstained. The countries that voted against and that abstained formed the necessary blocking minority, due to which the SCoPAFF committee did not approve the proposal for a one-year license extension. The proposal will be further forwarded to a vote in the Appeals Committee. Should it happen that even here the necessary majority is not reached, the Commission's proposal will be voted on directly by the College of Commissioners. However, it is not certain whether the college would have time to comment by 15/12/2022, i.e., by the day the license expires.
More information is available here.