On Thursday 7 December, the European Commission adopted new guidelines to clarify how to design joint sustainable development initiatives in agriculture that can benefit from a new exclusion from EU competition rules introduced by the new Common Agricultural Policy.
Article 210a of the ‘CMO Regulation’ (No. 1308/201) excludes certain restrictive agreements in the agricultural sector from the ban on cartels (established by Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU), on the condition that these agreements are essential to achieving sustainability standards that go beyond European or national rules.
This exclusion only applies to agreements between agricultural producers and agreements between agricultural producers and other players in the agri-food chain. The agreements must relate to agricultural products.
The guidelines specify the categories of sustainability objectives that can be pursued under the agreements. These include environmental protection, reducing the use of pesticides and antimicrobial resistance, and animal health and welfare.
The new guidelines set out requirements in terms of sustainability standards.
The guidelines also define the scope of ex-post intervention by competition authorities. The latter may intervene if the implementation of a sustainability agreement leads to unreasonable consumer prices or the elimination from the market of a product for which there is significant demand. The competent authorities may require the termination or modification of sustainability agreements.
The new guidelines will come into force once they have been published in the Official Journal of the EU. Parties to agreements that have already been implemented should bring them into line with the Commission’s guidelines. Operators will be able to ask the Commission for an opinion on the compatibility of their agreements from Friday 8 December.
Link to the guidelines: https://aeur.eu/f/a0j (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)