On Monday 21 February, the Agriculture Ministers of 19 EU countries asked the European Commission not to exclude wine and meat from the future promotion policy for European agricultural products.
The European Commission is preparing a legislative proposal to revise this policy, one option of which would be to no longer provide EU aid for the promotion of foodstuffs that are no longer produced in a sustainable manner: wine and meat are in the spotlight (see EUROPE 12665/8).
But the Agriculture Ministers, at the initiative of Poland, asked to be able to “continue to promote all agricultural products”, noted the French minister, Julien Denormandie, at the final press conference. “This is a clear message” to the Commission, said the President-in-Office of the Agriculture Council of the EU during the ministerial debate. Mr Denormandie noted that “18” delegations (including Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Finland, Romania and Portugal) had supported Poland’s requests to maintain the conditions of eligibility of agricultural products for promotion.
Only the Netherlands supported a revision to exclude “all meat” from the list of products eligible for EU support for promotional measures.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, told the press that “almost all the Member States” had defended, during this EU Council, the fact of being able to continue promoting the consumption of wine and meat through EU actions.
However, he acknowledged that the policy needed to be reviewed in the light of strategies arising from the European Green Deal to promote “more sustainable ‘ production, improve production and animal welfare standards and encourage organic production. The Commission is still working on the proposal, which will be presented in the coming months. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)