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In a statement to the German Federal Parliament on 14/01/2022, German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir announced his intention to introduce mandatory animal welfare labelling by the end of 2022. In addition, the Minister plans to focus on nutrition policy by developing a nutrition strategy to reduce sugar, fat, and salt in food, and should include an anti-waste strategy. In his statement, Cem Özdemir also committed himself to the goal of strengthening the area of organic farming to 30% of agricultural land by 2030, 30% of food in supermarkets should come from organic farming. According to Özdemir, direct area payments in favour of public goods payments should also be phased out.
More information is available here.

During the first meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 17/01/2022, the French Minister for Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, reiterated his full support for the vaccination of poultry in response to the extremely large outbreaks of avian influenza in Europe. France will test two bird flu vaccines in the next few weeks to approve vaccinations for all 27 EU member states. The obstacle is the fact that vaccination of poultry against bird flu is in most cases still banned by the European Commission. Minister is working to change this in cooperation with the main veterinary officials of the 27 EU countries and to approve vaccination at EU level, if the conclusions of the tested vaccine allow.
More information is available here.

EU member states were required to submit draft CAP national strategic plans for to the Commission for approval by 31/12/2021. At the end of the year, the European Commission stated that it would keep the system for submitting proposals open after this date. A total of 18 member states submitted proposals by the required deadline, nine member states will submit proposals with a delay (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania; Lithuania has already submitted a proposal with a delay). Last week, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski called on states that have not yet submitted proposals for a speedy correction. He emphasized that the simultaneous submission of all proposals was crucial. He warned that otherwise there was a risk of unfair evaluation. The submission of all plans at once should allow the Commission to assess all proposals according to the same criteria, according to fair criteria, thus avoiding double standards. The Commission will have three months to assess the submitted plans, the Commission should send letters containing an initial evaluation of the strategic plans to the member states at the turn of March and April 2022, after which the plans will be revised in cooperation with the member states and the Commission. According to the Commission's representatives, it is not easy to predict when the plans will be finally approved, but the Commission's goal is to approve all the plans by the end of 2022. However, according to the Commission, it will also depend on when the remaining countries submit their proposals. The new rules should be implemented from 01/01/2023.
More information is available here.

The European Commission is preparing an annual Info Day online for the Calls for Proposals 2022 under the European Union's promotion policy. The first day will be devoted to political aspects Speakers from the European Commission will discuss the promotion policy in view of the support to the transition towards a more sustainable European food system, and its link with the Farm to Fork strategy. The on-going policy review will be a talking point, as well as the priorities of the 2022 Annual Work Programme and Calls for proposals. The second day will focus on the development of successful campaigns, presented by representatives of the European Commission, experts, and project coordinators. The theme will be to align projects with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy, the Europe’s Beating Cancer plan and the food directives.
Registration is available here.

On 11/01/2022, the Commission launched feedback on a proposal to revise EU state aid rules for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. The proposal aims to compare the current rules with EU priorities (CAP, the Common Fisheries Policy and the European Green Deal), more information is available here. The consultation is open until 13/03/2022, available here.