Agrifood ProBrief

Thu 24 October 2024| View online

Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes

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Welcome to your daily Agrifood Pro Briefing. In today’s edition, we bring you a diverse mix of updates on agriculture and food – covering everything from biomethane and anti-deforestation to trade, fisheries and cultivated meat.

• Parade of national positions exposes nerves over CAP payments
• MEPs vote to fast-track delay on anti-deforestation rules
• Commission, EU countries reject Hungarian ban on cultivated meat

🟡Top story

Parade of national positions exposes nerves over CAP payments

While the Hungarian presidency’s CAP conclusions, published yesterday (23 October), have been presented as overwhelmingly supported by members states – all except Romania – half of the EU countries felt it urgent and necessary to sign declarations clarifying their position on some parts of the text. 

Retrieve Maria’s story on the conclusions presented at the AGRIFISH Council here.

Unsurprisingly, all six declarations focus on budgetary issues, which took centre stage at the negotiations in Luxembourg. Most of them touch on the distribution of CAP payments among member states, the point that led the Romanian delegation to vote against the text and thus prevent a full consensus. 

Romania signed a document, seen by Euractiv, together with other Eastern European countries – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia – denouncing the fact that they receive a lower level of CAP support. The statement calls on the Commission to finalise the “external convergence” process in the next seven-year EU budget, saying that these countries do not longer count on advantages such as lower production costs. 

But others disagree.  

Denmark and theNetherlands emphasised in a joint declaration, seen by Euractiv, that the “fair distribution of CAP support” mentioned in the conclusions must take into account differences in costs across the bloc, a view echoed by Cyprus and Greece in another joint statement.  

Italy also issued a separated declaration with the same political goal, a diplomatic source said.  

Another key theme at the Council were the Commission’s potential plans of integrating farm subsidies into the EU cohesion policy. The Hungarian conclusions made a subtle to reference to this by defending the need for a “dedicated” CAP – an earlier draft included the word “separate”, which one diplomatic source said was removed at the request of Germany. 

The country also presented its own statement, insisting that the next budget – for which the Commission will table a proposal in 2025 and which EU leaders will then discuss – should be kept out of the Agri Council discussions.  

Finally, a diplomatic source told Euractiv that Portugal made a statement calling for independent and sufficient farm subsidies. Speaking to journalists at the Council, the country’s agriculture minister, José Manuel Fernandes, insisted that the CAP must not be “weakened”. 

Commission highlights biomethane’s potential for circular economy

Speaking at an event during the Biomethane Week, Gaëlle Marion, responsible for sustainability in the Commission’s DG Agri, rejected claims that the EU’s goal of expanding biomethane production could lead to an intensification of livestock farming. 

Yesterday, the Agrifood Pro Brief reported on a research that described the EU's policy to promote biomethane as a "curse" for agriculture because it would lead to the intensification of livestock farming. “I don’t see how [biomethane production] would lead to an increase [in livestock],” Marion said, adding that “using manure as an input is part of circularity”.  

For the Commission official, the bloc’s Nitrates Directive – which aims to protect water bodies from pollution caused by nitrogen compounds from fertilisers and manure – provides the necessary safeguards to ensure the sustainability of livestock farming.  

Harmen Dekker, CEO of the European Biogas Association (EBA), told Euractiv that biomethane production offers several environmental benefits, such as removing excess nitrogen from digestate using various technologies.  

🟡Parliament

MEPs vote to fast-track delay on anti-deforestation rules

The European Parliament voted to fast-track the Commission's proposal to allow an extra 12 months before the EU's anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) comes into effect. Sofia gave you all the details on the one-year extension here.  

MEPs confirmed the decision of the Parliament's Environment Committee (ENVI) to use the urgent procedure, which sends the proposal directly to a plenary vote, bypassing the report at committee level. This procedure was used earlier this year to relax some of the environmental requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The final vote on the proposal is scheduled for 14 November. 

Sefcovic’s promises on trade

Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, the Commissioner-designate for trade and economic security, has emphasised his intention of closing the EU-Mercosur trade agreement during the upcoming mandate in the written answers sent to the Parliament ahead of the confirmation hearings. He added that he wants to continue negotiations with India, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and finalise the deal with Mexico.

Nevertheless, he used a cautious tone and stressed that he would seek to bring them over the finish line, under the condition that the EU’s interests are met and its “values being respected.” Šefčovič also noted that he would partner with the Agriculture Commissioner in the renegotiation of a permanent trade liberalisation with Ukraine, as the temporary Autonomous Trade Measures are due to expire in June 2025.

🟡Food & Drink

Commission, EU countries reject Hungarian ban on cultivated meat

The European Commission and a number of EU countries have issued comments and detailed opinions against a Hungarian draft law banning the production and sale of cultured meat.

According to documents published on the TRIS database, the Budapest law, notified to the EU on 10 July, breaches the EU's Novel Foods Regulation and threatens the free movement of goods in the single market. 

Angelo traced the origins of the story and its implications. 

Meanwhile, farmers’ organisations and PDO consortia from Czechia, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain are set to mobilise against the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), according to a letter seen by Euractiv and sent to the EFSA director general Bernhard Url.  

The organisations oppose the updated guidelines on novel foods, published at the end September, in particular the new requirements for applications for products derived from cell cultures. Among the signatories to the letter is the Consortium of Parmigiano Reggiano, which is produced in the same region as the Parma-based authority. 

 “Although the new authorisation procedures are more detailed, there are many substantial gaps in several aspects,” the organisations wrote, recalling the note endorsed by agriculture ministers last January, calling for the same evaluation criteria reserved for new drugs and medicines to be applied to lab-grown meat, and for the suspension of authorisations for cell culture products.

European authorities seize over €91 million in counterfeit food

European authorities have seized more than €91 million worth of counterfeit and substandard food products in the annual Operation OPSON, Europol said in a press release yesterday (23 October). Investigators claim that this year there has been a "continuing trend" of fraudsters selling expired food products, which they obtain from waste disposal companies and later reintroduce to the market after changing the expiry date. The products most affected by counterfeiting were olive oil and wines protected by the EU's Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).

🟡Fisheries

Kadis vows to promote ‘diplomacy’ in international competition

Responding to written questions from MEPs, Commissioner-designate for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis said he was open to a possible reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), depending on the results of an ongoing evaluation. He also announced his intention to pursue “active diplomacy” with third countries in the fight against illegal fishing (IUU), to help them introduce controls and comply with regulations. 

Kadis also wants to use his mandate to strengthen fish farming and “raise awareness of the benefits of a strong seaweed sector in the EU”, building on the European Seaweed Initiative.

Hugo gives the details. 

Dolphin mortality reduced by fishing ban in the Bay of Biscay

The French Ministry of Fisheries announced in a press release this week that France's ban on fishing in the Bay of Biscay in February 2024 reduced dolphin mortality by 76%.  

The figures come after the European Commission proposed a delegated act to impose a new closure from 22 January to 20 February 2025 on all European fisheries in the Gulf, particularly Spanish fisheries.  

Hugo reported about the implications of such a decision.

In view of the results, France declared that it would comply with the decision in 2025, although it did not consider this to be a “long-term” measure. Pending a possible lifting of the ban in 2027, France will install pingers (acoustic deterrents for dolphins and other cetaceans) and cameras on the vessels concerned, such as trawlers.

🟡 The Capitals

Paris – Mass demonstration planned against Mercosur deal 

FNSEA, the largest farmers trade union in France, announced this week a demonstration on 15 November against the EU-Mercosur agreement that could be concluded at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on 18 and 19 November. “We are ready to go far in France (...) and in Brussels,” FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau told RTL yesterday morning. The union is calling for a complete halt to the negotiations. The French President Emmanuel Macron reminded the European Council on 17 October that he was still against ratifying the agreement “as it stands”. 

Dublin – Toiseach urges lawmakers to unite to keep nitrates derogation 

In an address to the national parliament this week, Ireland’s Taoiseach Simon Harris called on the country to “be ready to pull together” to maintain the derogation from the EU’s nitrates directive next year, which he said was the main demand of farming organisations. 

Farmers in Ireland, like those in several other member states, benefit from an exemption to EU rules that allows them to exceed the limits for nitrogen from livestock manure per hectare under certain conditions.   

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Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Agrifood team

Today’s briefing was prepared by the Agrifood team; Angelo Di Mambro, Maria Simon Arboleas, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, and Hugo Struna. Share your feedback or information with us at digital@euractiv.com.

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