At their first meeting of the 6 months under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union on Tuesday 23 January in Brussels, the EU agriculture ministers will be discussing the effects of Ukrainian imports, while the European Commission is preparing to extend the autonomous trade measures.
Other items on the agenda include the launch of the strategic dialogue on the future of EU agriculture, the Belgian Presidency’s work programme, presented by Minister David Clarinval (including topics such as the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy, ‘breakfast’ directives, new genomic techniques, sustainable use of pesticides, seeds, animal welfare, etc.), the protection status of large carnivores and the controversial issue of synthetic meat.
Trade. The traditional debate on agricultural trade issues is set to focus once again on Ukraine. At a time when agricultural demonstrations are taking place in several Member States, the agriculture ministers are due to give their opinion on the European Commission’s expected proposal on the extension of autonomous trade measures for Ukraine. In all likelihood, the Member States will once again reiterate their support for Ukraine, while referring to the need for more detailed information on imports and the need to define medium and long-term solutions.
In this respect, the five Eastern European Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) who recently wrote to the European Commission should ask for tariff quotas to be set up for Ukrainian imports of sensitive products.
In a note (https://aeur.eu/f/agu ) to the EU Council, Poland suggests, in the case of poultry meat, eggs and sugar, “excluding these products from total tariff liberalisation”.
Latvia will also be talking (https://aeur.eu/f/agv ) about agri-food imports from Russia. Latvia believes that the EU has a moral duty to put an end to trade that could contribute directly or indirectly to Russia’s ability to continue its war against Ukraine.
Strategic dialogue. The ministers will have an initial discussion on the strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture, which will be launched on Thursday 25 January (see other news). Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, will provide the EU Council with further information on the organisation of the strategic dialogue.
The ministers will also debate the proposal for a forest monitoring framework (https://aeur.eu/f/agt ).
Wolves. The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has not yet scheduled any specific steps on the examination of the Commission’s proposal to adapt the wolf’s protection status to allow Member States to use more flexible population management measures. A working group of the ‘Environment’ Council will nevertheless begin to study the dossier. “The date for taking a decision is the end of 2024”, said a European source on 19 January. The ‘Environment’ Council is responsible for this dossier.
At the ‘Agriculture’ Council, the Finnish delegation, supported by Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden, will present a document (https://aeur.eu/f/agx ) warmly welcoming the Commission’s proposal on the status of the wolf (see EUROPE 13318/6). These countries are even asking the Commission to go further by identifying the large populations of carnivores (brown bear and lynx) that are in a favourable conservation status, thus enabling a protection status to be adapted accordingly.
Cellular meat. Austria (supported in particular by France and Italy) will present a document (https://aeur.eu/f/agw ) stressing the role of the CAP in safeguarding high-quality food production. It was an opportunity for the country to express its reservations about the production of cellular meat.
Other items on the agenda: at Portugal’s request, there will be an exchange of views on the water resilience initiative, and the Netherlands will once again stress the benefits of RENURE fertilisers made from treated livestock manure. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)