During her intervention in front of the plenary session of the European Parliament, Health Commissioner Kyriakides stated that the Commission has not yet taken a decision on front-of-packaging labelling, refusing rumours that the Nutri-Score is the favoured option. Member Stated have decided to ban, starting in 2022, food additive E171 after consistent studies have underlined its dangers to human health. 

In the Baltic countries, after lab-grown meat, start-ups are exploring the possibilities to create cell-based seafood. 

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October marked the adoption of the Farm to Fork strategy as a shared European strategy, and not only a European Commission’s initiative. In fact, the vote of the European Parliament on the texted agreed by the joint ComEnvi & ComAgri Committees confirmed most of the Commission’s vision of the future of European agriculture and the targets set by 2030.  

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The month of October 2021 was characterized by an increase in raw material costs for winemakers worldwide. However, the wine industry seems to be able to pass on these additional costs to consumers since the economic recovery following COVID fuels demand. Higher prices are also justified by lower volume supplied worldwide and especially in France due to poor climate conditions. Finally, taxes and tariff remain an issue as countries like Britain and China are leveraging their trade policies. 

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September 17-18th marked the Agricultural G20 held in Florence, Italy, after which agriculture ministers signed a declaration of intentions named “Charter of Florence”: with commitments in turning agriculture more sustainable. 

On the Front-of-Package labelling debate, IARC/WHO – International Agency for Research on Cancer – published a paper in support of the Nutri-Score system, whereas the Czech and Italian ministers accused the same nutritional label to damage traditional culinary products and that it creates judgments, not information, respectively. 

At the same time, the European Commission launched the Healthy Lifestyles 4 all initiative, and advanced the idea of applying the same rules for the labelling of alcoholic beverages that are now applied for ingredients, additives and processing aids. 

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A new study from the Kiel University, Germany, takes a clear cut conclusion on the effect of F2F on the agricultural sector in the UE. And while the US tires to create a coalition that would oppose the agri-food strategy, Vice-President Timmermans called on world leader to be inspired by the same strategy so to follow the EU steps in agriculture. All along, the Parliament AGRI & ENVI Committees voted on the report on F2F, passing the whole of the amendments.  

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In September the European Commission opened for public consultation asking for stakeholders their opinion on the legislative initiative to update the curent legal framework on the matter of New Genomic Techniques, following the study published in April 2021. At the same time, a letter signed by 50+ organisations addressed to the Commission opposed its opening to these technologies, arguing that with this action, the Commission would put into danger the health of humans, animals, and the environment. 

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In September 2021, the EU Parliament has rejected plans to reserve five specific groups of antibiotics for use in humans and largely ban them in animals. Developments concerning the avian flu and African Swine Fever are still closely monitored in the EU.

At national level, a pig backlog and shortage of CO2 and workers are causing a pork crisis in the UK, while The Netherlands have announced radical plans to cut livestock numbers and Ireland is not ruling out a limit on a national livestock herd.

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At EU-level, historically low harvests have been forecasted for France, Italy and Spain following spring frosts, hail, droughts and diseases earlier this year.

At national level, a volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands is threatening wine growers, hail affected Spanish vineyards and wildfires threatened white wine crops in Greece.

In Italy, Agriculture Minister Patuanelli ensures Italy’s strong position in the on-going dispute between Prosecco and the Croatian “Prosek”. 

Meanwhile, Champagne exports to Russia have started again following a name dispute between the Russian “shampanskoye” and the French Champagne protected under EU law.

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At the 10^th anniversary of the event, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, has given today her second ‘State of the Union Address’ at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This annual event is significant to demonstrate the European Commission’s accountability towards the EU’s democratically elected representatives, the Members of the European Parliament, and to be able to debate on the vision and roadmap that the European Commission is proposing.

In her speech, she has given an overview on what the Commission has been doing since last year’s address and what plans they have for the future. Moreover, this was backed up by producing several Factsheets of the work done so far with a list of its Achievements. For agriculture, the newly reformed common agricultural policy is mentioned, which should “enable European farming to become greener, fairer and more flexible”.

Much like the previous edition, the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic dominated the opening of the speech. It included the topics of health with now the successful vaccination rollout, the digital health certificate and thus the aftermath/recovery. Here she underlined the proposal for “a new health preparedness and resilience mission for the whole of the EU” to stop the next pandemic from happening, which should be backed up by Team Europe investment of EUR 50 billion by 2027. 

Other issues included, the state of the single market, uptake of digital (5G and the European Chips Act), social pillar, climate change, Afghanistan, cyber security, common defence, partnership with the world, migration and rule of law.

In parallel to this, the Commission has also sent a Letter of Intent to the European Parliament, and the Presidency of the Council regarding its next upcoming legislative and other initiatives, such as the “Legislative proposal on carbon removal certification” for example. See the full list here.

The 2020 edition had the declaration of the -55% target for emission reduction and that by next summer, the Commission shall revise all of the climate and energy legislation to make it “fit for 55”. They will enhance emission trading, boost renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, reform energy taxation. This has been now indeed realized in the “Fit for 55” package, for which von der Leyen has said the goal is simple: “put a price on pollution, clean the energy we use, have smarter cars and cleaner airplanes”. Furthermore, she has asked the co-legislators to “keep the package and its ambition together”.

In her speech last year, she did not mention agriculture, farming or food production explicitly, just in the context of precision farming or that farmers had received funding as a support too. This lack of the topic has been criticized by MEPs, who sit in the AGRI Committee. However, in this year’s speech there wasn’t even a single reference on agriculture or the food systems despite the constant background theme of the need for a sustainable transition in the Green Deal. One notable mention came only from Philippe Lamberts (Greens), who lashed out on the CAP being “deaf and blind to climate and biodiversity issues”, while the Commission has stated the importance of this year’s COP in Glasgow and has made the new pledge to double its external funding for biodiversity.

Find the Commission’s document attached to this email and the link to the full speech is available at:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_21_4701

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZlifT2aN1g