At the transport and energy Council yesterday (30 May), France, Germany and the Netherlands called the European Commission to launch controls in 3rd countries to reinforce the mesures against the import of fraudulent biofuels.
January farmers' rallies in Germany marked the beginning of European demonstrations, but while they have largely ebbed away, growers remain unsatisfied with how the national government works.
Our tour of the EU this time focuses on unfair trade practices (UTPs) in the food supply chain, such as late payments or sales below production costs.
The Commission will assess if there is a need to incentivise EU countries to shorten the time for the reclamation of irregular payments, a spokesperson said after the European Court of Auditors (ECA) highlighted the lengthy process to return improper disbursements to the EU budget.
Money invested in cutting agrifood emissions should increase 18-fold and reach around €240 billion per year if we want to halve emissions and put the world on track for net zero emissions by 2050, according to a World Bank study published on Tuesday (7 April).
Last week the European Parliament gave its final nod to a package meant to make the Common Agricultural Policy rules easier to apply for farmers and national administrations. But it is not the end of the CAP ‘simplification’ debate. It is just the beginning.
As cocoa prices surge to record highs and Central and West African growers grapple with the impact of climate change, the cocoa sector is rushing to adapt its production to the EU anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR), which will take effect from January 2025.
In the next meeting on pesticides between the Commission and member states, on Monday and Tuesday, the bloc’s executive will table a regulation to slash to zero the insecticide thiacloprid residues in all food products, after having proposed to raise the limit of the maximum quantity of residues in imported food.
Amid fears that the EU will miss its target of 25% organic agriculture by 2030, stakeholders are calling for a more favourable policy framework to boost demand for organic products.
Experts identified extreme weather as a primary challenge to food supply in Europe in an assessment of EU food security released by the European Commission on 16 April.
In 2020, almost one in three farm managers across the EU was 65 years or older. Generational renewal is among the main challenges of European agriculture, and supporting young farmers is one of the most important objectives of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).
Melons and tomatoes from the Western Sahara, the main crops in the contested territory, should be labelled as such and not as originating from Morocco, according to an opinion by Tamara Ćapeta, an advocate general at the EU’s top court, issued on Thursday (21 March).
Lawmakers on the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee backed the Commission's proposal to give farmers greater flexibility to slaughter animals on the farm and thus reduce the need for animal transport, but called for more assistance.
The EU remains heavily reliant on animal feed and fertilisers imports from outside the bloc, as highlighted in a recent study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee (AGRI).
In the wake of the farmers' protests, the German government has tried to pin the blame on supermarkets. The German Monopolies Commission has now concluded that there are indeed imbalances, although it warns against hasty political decisions.
While the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is currently being blocked by Germany and Italy, high-profile food corporations are calling for its swift adoption to allow for "coherent and harmonised legislation" at EU level.
In 2022 the area under organic agriculture and the number of producers increased, but the bloc faced a decline in organic food retail sales in 2022, according to the new report of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture.
Tensions over renewed trade benefits to Ukraine were high last week, with the coming week shaping up to be just as fraught.
After weeks of mobilisation across Europe, farmers' protests seem to have gained a political foothold in the conclusions of the European Council summit on Thursday (1 February) which acknowledged the “concerns raised” by the sector and the “essential role” of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Let’s dive straight into a tour of the EU, dedicated to how the CAP and national policies support farmers coping with the damages caused by extreme weather events.
As nationwide farmers' protests continue, the German government wants to have the market power of supermarkets and the food industry scrutinised, blaming their price-setting power for the poor economic situation of many farms.
Road blockades across the country and growing exasperation from farmers are shaping up to be the first major political test for EU election candidates in France, as they attempt to court the agricultural community.
Amid growing farmers' protests across the EU, the French EU Greens chief on Tuesday (23 January) called for a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that temporarily insures farmers' pay and limitations on free trade deals that could undermine EU farmers' competitiveness.
Current policies are not a sufficient incentive for farmers to do more to achieve the EU climate targets, according to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) experts, who warned of the need for a carbon pricing system for the sector.
