Agrifood ProBrief

Wed 6 November 2024| View online

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Welcome to your daily Agrifood Pro Briefing, delivered to your inbox as the Commissioner-designate hearings are in full swing. Read on for a preview of today's challenging hearing for Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for health, food safety and animal Welfare, plus news on Mercosur and pesticide authorisation.

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🟡Happening today

Tough hearing ahead for Hungary’s Várhelyi

The hearing of Hungary's Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for health and animal welfare - and food safety - will be one of the most thrilling of the week as its outcome is all but certain. The grilling by MEPs will start at 18:30 and is expected to wrap up by 21:30. You can follow our live coverage here. 


As things stand, Várhelyi's confirmation seems highly unlikely. According to the Parliament’s procedure, he would need coordinators representing at least two-thirds of the AGRI and ENVI committee membership to either support or reject his candidacy.  


Socialists, Greens and The Left are expected to oppose the nomination, while the centre-right EPP is leaning towards supporting it - albeit with some internal divisions - as reported in Euractiv's Health Pro Brief earlier this week. Renew could also oppose Várhelyi, seeking to force President von der Leyen to shrink his vast portfolio, which ranges from pharmaceuticals and animal welfare to pesticides and food labelling.  


If the Hungarian politician is not confirmed tonight, he could be asked to answer additional written questions or even face a second audition. 


Várhelyi's hearing is one of those events where personal, political and political tensions will be unleashed.  


He began his career in the EU executive in 2019, when he was confirmed as commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement after the parliament rejected the Budapest’s first choice, László Trócsányi, due to a conflict of interest.


Though well versed in the Brussels bubble - having served as Hungary's permanent representative to the EU since 2015 and deputy representative in 2011 - Várhelyi has a contentious past with EU lawmakers, notably after he was caught on a hot mic saying, "how many idiots are left?" during a parliamentary debate in 2023. 


Politically, despite his many years in the EU capital, he is still seen as the Viktor Orban's man.


Once in charge, Várhelyi would have powers over the most controversial issues in food policy, from pesticides to food labelling, where the ambitions of the Farm to Fork strategy have foundered.


There is also widespread scepticism about his suitability to oversee EU animal welfare policy.  "He has not worked with animal welfare at all (...) at the moment it is not at all clear whether he has a vision here," said EPP environment spokesperson Peter Liese last week.   


"The problem is, if we reject him completely, what do we get from Orbán?" Liese wondered. 

Calm sea forecast for Kadis’ hearing

MEPs from the Committee on Fisheries (PECH) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) will today interview Costas Kadis for the post of Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans from 14h30 to 17h30. However, the 'pass or fail' verdict is entirely in the hands of the PECH MEPs.


The Cypriot EPP candidate has inherited a smaller portfolio than his predecessor, as fisheries is no longer linked to the environment as it was in the last decade. 


In his written answers to MEPs, he outlined his main priorities: the fitness check of the Common Fisheries Policy - with a possible overhaul in sight - the fight against illegal fishing and the renegotiation of fisheries agreements with the UK. Hugo went into detail. 


According to several EP sources, the biologist and former agriculture minister (2018-2024) should get through this hearing without a hitch. The toughest questions are expected to come from The Left and the Greens, who are likely to press him for more commitments on small-scale coastal fishing and the protection of ecosystems. 

Wageningen’s five big dilemmas

Today, Wageningen University - the EU's leading agricultural research institution - will hold its annual Mansholt Lecture in Brussels to present five "pressing dilemmas" for Europe's agri-food sector.


It is a call for an open and frank discussion about the choices the EU must make to ensure sustainable land use and a balance between agriculture, forestry and nature on a continent where humans have altered landscapes and natural environments longer and more than anywhere else in the world.  


Following a similar initiative at national level, the Wageningen researchers will present a report identifying five big questions on issues ranging from the definition of self-sufficiency to the future of livestock and consumer behaviour.  


To find the answers, we need to keep the conversation going, says Wageningen University & Research President Sjoukje Heimovaara in an op-ed for Euractiv, building on her participation in the Strategic Dialogue. 

🟡 The new Commission

Roswall’s hearing: water, nature credits & wolves

The coordinators of the ENVI committee will meet again today at 14:30, after failing to reach an agreement overnight on the nomination of Sweden's Jessika Roswall as EU environment commissioner.


“As soon as she has to leave familiar territory (circular economy, bioeconomy), she loses the plot. Questions are often simply ignored and generalisations made,” Greens MEP Jutta Paulus said, summarising the disappointment of the majority of the committee.


Turning to agricultural issues, Roswall, who will be in charge of the EU's water resilience strategy, stressed that farmers feel the effects of water scarcity and environmental degradation first-hand. Aside from the strategy - on which she didn’t provide much detail - Roswall stressed throughout the hearing that she would focus on implementing existing legislation and cutting red tape, rather than making new rules.


In response to a question from MEP Sander Smit of the Dutch Farmer-Citizen Movement, Roswall said she would contribute to the forthcoming vision for the future of agriculture, which should also focus on rewarding sustainable farming practices and providing farmers with a fair income. In this regard, the Swedish politician declared that she would explore nature credits to reward farmers and foresters for sustainable practices, although she admitted that measuring and pricing nature is "complicated".


On the hot topic of wolf protection (read this article for a refresher on the issue), Roswall noted that she was well aware of the tensions between farmers and wolves, but ruled out "speeding up" the downgrading of their protection status, as suggested by far-right MEP Anja Arndt in her question. She also recalled that member states can maintain a higher protection status if they deem it necessary.

🟡Trade

French and Walloon parliaments attack EU-Mercosur deal

Farmers in Europe are increasing pressure on national parliaments to block the trade deal with the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay). Yesterday, MPs in France - the most vocal opponent of the trade deal - tabled a resolution calling on the EU to include "effective mirror clauses" in the agreement, banning imports of products containing pesticide residues that are not authorised in the EU.   


On Monday (4 November), 200 MPs from across the political spectrum signed a petition calling on the government “to block the conclusion” of the deal. 


The Walloon parliament in Belgium passed several resolutions in October urging the negotiations to be suspended. “The agreement in the majority is clear, the government will not sign the Mercosur agreement in its current form," said Minister President Adrien Dolimont in the regional parliament's committee on Monday. 


In 2016, the Walloon parliament blocked the trade deal with Canada for months.  


The G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro on 18-19 November could be the first opportunity for EU and Mercosur leaders to resolve the remaining differences over the agreement, which has been negotiated for more than 20 years. The French FNSEA and Walloon FUGEA trade unions announced mobilisations against the agreement in the coming days. 


In his hearing on Monday, Trade Commissioner-designate Maroš Šefčovič defended the deal.  

The move was criticized by Farm Europe in a note yesterday. For the Brussels-based think-tank, the agreement “remains antagonistic to EU agriculture interests and would offset most — if not all — EU producers’ efforts on the difficult path of climate transition". 

🟡Crops & Livestock

Fruit, vegetable growers call to boost 'mutual recognition' of pesticides 

At a meeting in Paris yesterday (5 November), public authorities and representatives of the fruit and vegetable sector in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain urged EU countries to make more use of the mutual recognition system for plant protection products.  


Under EU rules, mutual recognition allows the authorisation of a plant protection product to apply in another member state for the same use and under comparable conditions. The Commission has stressed the potential of this route to speed up market access for new biological control solutions, a view echoed by stakeholders.  


Representatives of the fruit and vegetable sector meeting in Paris called on member states to work towards greater harmonisation and to take advantage of existing opportunities in areas with similar production characteristics.  

🟡 The Capitals

Paris – Lactalis’ supplier reassures producers let down by the company

At a press conference yesterday, the milk producers' organisation (PO) UNELL reassured its members that a solution would be found for producers whose contracts had been cancelled by the multinational Lactalis. UNELL is the PO most affected by Lactalis' announcement of an 8% cut in national milk purchases. Of the 270 producers affected by the decision, more than 200 are members of UNELL. "We will be able to offer each producer the best marketing solution by the end of the year," assured Yohann Serreau, President of UNELL.


Dublin - Government launches €17.5m call for environmental innovation 

Agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue and the minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett have launched a €17.5 million call for European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) projects under the general theme of environmental sustainability.  EIPs are funded by the CAP’s Rural Development Fund to support bottom-up innovation projects. In this particular case, the money will go to innovative projects on climate change mitigation and adaptation at farm level, farming in coastal areas, food sustainability, security and the role of short supply chains, regenerative agriculture and other environmentally friendly practices.

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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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