Leaked Commission agenda sounds death knell for missing Farm to Fork files

A leaked version of the European Commission’s work programme for 2024 lists none of the remaining EU sustainable food files, seemingly confirming stakeholders’ worst fears that these proposals will not see the light of day before next June’s EU elections. 

The work programme, entitled ‘Delivering today and preparing for tomorrow’, outlines the Commission’s plans for which proposals it intends to put forward and when – but it makes no mention of the key outstanding agrifood files.

It falls at a particularly tense moment for EU policymaking, as anything not on the table before the June elections faces an uncertain future in the next Commission and Parliament.

The notable absences include the sustainable food systems law, a key element of the EU’s flagship Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy and a central pillar of the Green Deal, which aims to accelerate and facilitate the transition to sustainable food systems. 

Originally pencilled for the third quarter of this year, between EU elections looming and mounting pushback against the EU’s green policies, question marks have been raised over whether it will be presented before the end of this Commission’s mandate in October 2024. 

Likewise, the EU’s overhaul of the animal welfare legislation is conspicuously absent from the work programme, although it does maintain that the protection of animals during transport – one of the four proposals intended to make up the animal welfare package – will come before the end of 2023. 

“While the main focus is now on implementation [of the Green Deal], we will come forward still this year with proposals on the protection of animals during transport,” the Commission work programme reads.

It adds that efforts will continue to “ensure that the green transition is done in a just, smart and inclusive way”. It also maintains that the Green Deal “remains a central part” of the Commission’s work. 

Commission still evasive on timeline of EU's food agenda missing pieces

The parliamentary hearing to award the Green Deal portfolio to European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič did not offer much clarity on the timeline of the remaining pieces of legislation of the Farm to Fork, the EU’s flagship sustainable food policy.

‘Sustainable farming and food security’

An accompanying document further detailing the Commission’s 2024 plans refers to only two agrifood proposals – those on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques, and the sustainable use of pesticides regulation, the vehicle via which the EU hopes to slash in half the use and risk of pesticides by 2030. 

Stressing the need to progress on these proposals, which are both currently under discussion by lawmakers, the document calls for agreements to be found as part of efforts to “foster sustainable farming and food security”. 

Meanwhile, the document reiterates the Commission will initiate a series of “green social dialogues”, including a strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture in the EU, as announced in Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech in September.

This is designed to further engage with farmers, stakeholders in the food chain and citizens “working together on the transition towards sustainable food systems,” according to the programme. The launch of this strategic dialogue is planned for the first half of November, EU sources told Euractiv.

The news is unlikely to go down well with stakeholders, who have been rallying in a last-ditch attempt to save the missing proposals.

“Failing to publish the [sustainable food systems] law will mean failing to deliver on the EU’s climate, environment and health goals,” 160 signatories, including the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Compassion in World Farming EU, stressed in a letter addressed to President von der Leyen back in September.

This is because food businesses, retailers, farmers, consumers, and policymakers need the law as an “enabling policy framework to empower them to play their part in the transition of the agri-food sector, which is critical to the achievement of the EU’s climate objectives,” they set out. 

**Luca Bertuzzi and Julia Tar contributed to this article 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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