On Monday 17 December, the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union proposed that a new negotiating session with the European Parliament be convened on Wednesday 19 December on the proposal for a Directive on avoidance of unfair trading practices in the food supply chain (see EUROPE 12158, 12152).
This comes as something of a surprise. The EU institutions failed to reach a compromise on the proposal on Wednesday 12 December in Strasbourg and had planned to resume negotiations in January 2019. The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the first half of 2019 was therefore going to inherit the dossier.
The Austrian Presidency, which has not said its last word on the matter, during the Agriculture Council indicated its desire to reach a political agreement by the end of 2018. It stressed that she was still waiting for Parliament's response.
Parliament rapporteur Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italy) said he was "confident" that a satisfactory agreement strengthening the position of farmers would be reached in January 2019, under the Romanian Presidency. The Austrian Presidency had not accepted some of the Parliament's requests.
The Austrian Minister indicated that the Council did not wish to reopen the current negotiating mandate, and therefore did not wish to extend the scope of the text to large industries. However, this is one of the Parliament's strongly held demands. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)