The Austrian minister for sustainability and tourism, Elisabeth Köstinger, a former MEP whose country is to take over the half-yearly presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 July, plans to take forward the work of the agriculture ministers as much as possible on the legislative proposals regarding Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) beyond 2020.
The programme for the second half of 2018 also includes the fight against unfair trading practices in the food chain, risk assessment transparency and authorisation procedures of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as well as the European “protein plan”. The latter will be the focus of a high level conference scheduled to take place in Vienna on 22 and 23 November.
Markets, international trade and Brexit. The agriculture ministers will also regularly exchange views on market developments and international trade issues.
During this second term, the Commission and the United Kingdom will continue negotiations on Brexit. As underlined by the Austrian presidency, these must be concluded by October so that the result is formally validated by the member states, put to the approval of the European Parliament and presented to the British parliament before the date for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Union, on 29 March 2019. A period of transition will then begin and should end on 31 December 2020.
Meetings of agriculture ministers. The meetings of agriculture ministers under Austrian presidency of the Council of the EU are planned for 16 July, 10 December (possibly), 15 October (in Luxembourg), 19 November and 17 December. The traditional informal meeting is to take place from 23 to 25 September at Schloss Hof (Lower Austria). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)