EU agriculture ministers will meet on Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 June in Luxembourg to discuss the outcome of negotiations with the European Parliament on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The agenda of the last Agriculture Council under the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council is set to be a busy one.
The main topic will be the approval of the compromise with the European Parliament on the future CAP. But there are many other issues on the agenda: criteria for assessing the risks of pesticides to bees, the situation of agricultural markets, biological control agents, antibiotic resistance and the ban on mink farming.
CAP. Depending on the outcome of the super trilogue between the three EU institutions on the CAP reform texts, the EU Council could endorse the compromise reached. The super trilogue began on Thursday 24 June and is expected to end late on Friday 25 June, or even in the early hours of Saturday 26 June (see EUROPE 12745/13).
Bees. EU agriculture ministers will try to agree on 28 June on the level of bee protection to be taken into account in the future evaluation of pesticides. The European Commission has made a proposal that the European Parliament finds insufficient.
On 21 June, MEPs from the European Parliament’s Environment Committee once again put pressure on EU agriculture ministers at a public hearing to debate the risk assessment of pesticides to bees.
MEPs, who had blocked the adoption of criteria deemed too lax in 2019, also reiterated their demands: they want to set the acceptable mortality rate for bees at 7%, as proposed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its guidelines in 2013, but, faced with the reluctance of many Member States, the European Commission is proposing a rate of 10% to relaunch the discussion.
“This proposal is very ambitious compared to the guidance regarding risk assessment for bees still applicable today, that allows measuring only a decline in colony size in field studies bigger than 20-25%, and bearing in mind that the full range of the natural variability simulated by EFSA is around 23%”, the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council stresses in the document (https://bit.ly/2Sm6Bdg ) intended to guide the ministers’ discussion. It added that “based on the information provided by EFSA, measuring a 10% reduction in field studies is challenging, but still technically feasible”.
France is one of the few countries to defend the 7% figure. Beyond this percentage, the ministerial debate will also focus on setting a specific protection target for honey bees for the whole of the EU, and not by regulatory area as some Member States would like.
Agricultural markets. Some sectors remain in difficulty, notably the fruit and vegetable and the wine sectors, which were hit by heavy frosts in the spring, the Portuguese Presidency said in a document. In addition, the spread of African swine fever and avian influenza and high feed prices continue to affect the recovery of the meat sectors. Finally, the impact of Brexit has begun to be felt, particularly on imports.
The Agriculture Ministers are also expected to adopt a decision inviting the European Commission to present a study on biological control agents. This issue was debated in March, when EU agriculture ministers spoke out in favour of EU-wide harmonisation of the rules governing the use of these products by farmers, particularly with a view to reducing the use of pesticides (https://bit.ly/35Vy8W1 ).
Food supplements, antimicrobials and mink. The Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council will present a report on the state of play and possible ways forward regarding the rules applicable to the placing on the EU market of food supplements (vitamins, minerals and herbal teas, etc.). The objective would be to harmonise European legislation in this area.
The European Commission will inform Ministers on the progress and next steps in the fight against antimicrobial resistance in the framework of the European Joint Action underway since 2017.
The Austrian and Dutch delegations will present information on fur farming in the EU: it is banned in Austria, and recently, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Netherlands has brought forward the deadline for banning fur farms from January 2024 to March 2021.
Finally, the EU Agriculture Ministers will be briefed on the fourth ministerial conference on agriculture between the African Union and the European Union, which took place on 23 June. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)