The European Commission is expected to publish the delegated and implementing acts in mid-January, in order both to provide greater flexibility for operators in carrying out and managing their promotional campaigns and to increase the EU cofinancing rate for these promotion actions.
These measures are designed to help EU farmers cope with the consequences of the sanctions imposed by the US in the Airbus dispute (see EUROPE 12390/9).
Prepared by the European Commission since the beginning of December, the additional flexibility measures in the implementation and management of sales promotional for European agricultural products targeted by the US sanctions will probably be voted on by Member States’ experts in mid-January at a management committee meeting. They will be presented at the next meeting of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on 22 and 23 January.
The proposed regulations (delegated and implementing acts) should give producers more flexibility to change markets from promotional campaigns already approved, in order to open other markets (which is normally not possible under penalty of sanctions). The measures will also allow Member States to launch several calls for tender per year in order to better meet the needs of operators.
The Commission will also increase the rate of EU funding in promotional campaigns to consolidate farmers’ market shares in other countries of the world. For the wine sector, the cofinancing rate should increase from 50% to 60% public money (40% for the operator).
In the interests of rapid action, an urgency procedure could be introduced to speed up the adoption and implementation of delegated acts which normally have a two-month period for examination.
The European Parliament has expressed “deep concern” about the collateral damage to the entire chain of the European agri-food sector as a result of the US countermeasures (see EUROPE 12379/18). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)