EU agriculture and fisheries ministers meet in Brussels on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 December to discuss, inter alia, how to strengthen the position of farmers on the food supply chain. They will also take stock of the situation on organic farming following the failure of the inter-institutional negotiations under the Slovak presidency.
The Council hopes to be able to adopt conclusions on strengthening the farmers’ position in the supply chain and tackling unfair trading practices. The draft conclusions also recommend the adoption of an EU legislative framework to address unfair trading practices while observing the subsidiarity principle and keeping national systems that work well. It is hoped ministers will come to a decision on this controversial issue (see EUROPE 11683).
Organic farming. Ministers will be informed of the state of play in talks on organic farming which are currently deadlocked (see EUROPE 11684 and 11683).
Agriculture and climate change. The Council will hold an exchange of views on the agricultural aspects of the Commission proposals for an effort-sharing regulation (ESR) and a regulation on land use, land use change and forestry. The ESR relates to emissions from sectors not in the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS). These sectors include construction, agriculture (gas emissions other than CO2), waste management and transport, which accounted for almost 60% of total EU emissions in 2014.
Plant-breeding rights. The Presidency will inform ministers about a Commission explanatory notice clarifying certain articles of Directive 98/44/EC on the protection of biotechnical inventions. The notice states that products created through essentially biological processes should be excluded from patentability (see EUROPE 11678).
Protective measures against pests. The Commission will report on the implementation of the new regulation on protective measures against plant pests. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)