CAP Reform debate & vote: ready for trilogues

This week, the Agricultural Ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss and vote on the Council conclusions of the CAP post-2020 legislatives proposals, notably on the Strategic Plan regulation, the Horizontal regulation, and the Common Market Organization regulation. At the same time, the European Parliament voted on the same files during the plenary session of October […]

MEASURES & IMPACTS RELATED TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS: the recovery package for the double-performance of agriculture

At European Parliament level, Paolo De Castro (S&D), rapporteur on the recovery plan dossier, proposed that at least 2/3 of the total recovery package should be devoted to investment in sustainable development and digitization. At the meeting of the Council of agriculture ministers, Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski explained that despite the recession caused by the pandemic, […]

NEW BREEDING TECHNIQUES: new use for CRISP/Cas9

This month hot topic on New Breeding Techniques focused mainly on a controversial new study published on “Food” describing an experiment which could lead to potentially “detect GMOs derived from genome-editing techniques”. In Germany, CDU/CSU underlined its view that “it should not be regulated as genetically modified organisms “. In Germany as well, a new […]

Agri-Fisherie Council: National Strategic Plan’s approval needs further discussions

Chaired by Julia Klöckner, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture of Germany, the Council’s meeting focused on discussions on the common agricultural policy reform package, in the view of adopting its general approach in October 2020. Ministers discussed three elements of the future CAP: green architecture, direct payments to farmers and the new delivery model. […]

Mobilizing the European Agricultural Recovery Fund for an accelerated transition towards a double-performance European agriculture

Precision agriculture provides farmers and livestock farmers with solutions adapted to their context. Data from sensors, cameras, satellites and meteorological stations are processed by algorithms that use Decision Support Tools (DST) to provide advice on the most relevant actions that can be taken. The use of these tools ensures better input efficiency at the farm […]

Measures & impacts related to the Covid-19 crisis: recovery fund expected from Jan 2021

Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski announced at the informal Council meeting in Koblenz that he is in charge of drawing up a plan to ensure food security in case of future crises. Furthermore, opening up to pressure from MEPs, the Commissioner expressed his willingness to make the €8 current billion (7.5 billion constant euros) recovery funds decided […]

A renewed trade policy for a stronger Europe

Consultation process The trade policy review process will be based on broad consultations with stakeholders, including through public debates undertaken across the EU Member States and through written submissions. Stakeholders are invited to provide their responses to the questions set out above by 15 September 2020 to the functional mailbox: trade-policy-review-2020@ec.europa.eu. ‘The European Commission is […]