In its adoption of the report by Tibor Szanyi (S&D, Hungary), the European Parliament called for the specifics of the agriculture sector to be taken into greater account in the EU competition policy.
On 28 February, the committee on agriculture of the European Parliament is to discuss competition law, at a session to be attended by Commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Phil Hogan. It considers that the objectives of the common agriculture policy (CAP) should take precedence over competition law and the agriculture sector should enjoy derogations.
This position was included in the report voted on at the plenary session on the annual report on the competition policy. The opinion of Parliament's committee on agriculture was followed (see EUROPE 11681).
Parliament argues that this should take “better account of the specificities of the agricultural sector” and that the scope of the general derogation it enjoys, the specific rules for the dairy, olive oil, beef and veal sectors and individual exemptions under article 101 of the Treaty of the EU on the competition rules should be clarified.
“The collective activities of producer organisations and their associations, such as production planning and sales negotiation and, when appropriate, negotiation of the terms of contracts, should benefit in principle from a presumption of compatibility with article 101 TFEU”, according to the MEPs, who feel that the “current derogations are not used to their full extent”.
Food chain. The Commission is called upon to “take binding regulatory actions at EU level against unfair trading practices in the food chain, which hamper farmers and consumers”.
Pork industry and Bayer-Monsanto merger. Parliament considers that the Commission should “investigate the alleged cases of VAT fraud in the pork industry”. It “regrets that the Commission has not yet launched an enquiry on this issue, despite the complaints it has received from farmers' associations”.
The MEPs also stressed that they share the “concerns over the current negotiations regarding the merger” between Bayer AG and Monsanto Company Inc, which “could result in a monopoly situation in the seeds and pesticides markets”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)