European Union News - Agriculture & Fisheries

Fisheries Ministers adopted a general approach in which they states its position on the controversial of "shark finning". According to this general approach, the Council is in line of the Commission's proposal to suppress the derogation that would mean sharks can only be landed with their fins attached. The Council now awaits the position of the European Parliament, before it will formalise its position.

On the occasion of the 6th World Water Forum, the Joint Research Centre published a report which shows variations in yearly freshwater generation from 10 mm to over 500 mm for Europe and from less than 0.1 mm to over 500 mm for Africa. In addition to these results, the European Environment Agency highlighted in a report that Europe needs to redouble efforts in using water more efficiently to avoid undermining its economy, as well as a resolution adopted by the European Parliament.

MEPs approved the deal with USA and Canada that puts an end to the 20-year hormone beef trade war. With the new deal, the EU to keep its ban on imports of hormone-treated beef, in return for increasing its quota for imports of high-quality beef from the US and Canada. The increase in EU import quotas will take effect from August 2012.

The European Commission has presented a new proposal on accounting of greenhouse gases emissions in the forest and agriculture sectors. According to the Commission, this is the first step towards incorporating removals and emissions from forests and agriculture into the EU's climate policy.

The European Water Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary at the same time as the international community can celebrate that the Millennium Development Goal on sustainable access to drinking water has been achieved, five years before the deadline of 2015. So, the EU helped more than 32 million people to gain access to improved water supply and 9 million to sanitation facilities.

The Council adopted the compromise text previously agreed with the European Parliament that aligns the EU directive on fruit juices to the international food standards of the Codex Alimentarius. Once the new rules enters into force, the addition of sugars to fruit juices will not longer be authorised. The new directive authorises the food business operators to use a statement on the labels informing the consumers that from a certain date no fruit juices contain added sugars.

The European Commission, within the Europe 2020 flagship Innovation Union, has presented three new Innovation Partnerships which have as main aim to address weaknesses, bottlenecks and obstacles in the European research and innovation system that prevent or slow down good ideas being developed and brought to market. In particular, new proposals will work on raw materials, agriculture and healthy ageing.

The regulation aimed to improve the functioning of the EU milk sector has been adopted by the Council. With the new rules, the milk producers will increase their bargaining power by allowing them to set up producer organisations that on their behalf negotiate collectively contracts for the deliveries of milk. The new measures should be also seen in the context of abolition of the milk quotas regime from 2015.

The European Parliament approved a new regulation that boosts dairy farmers' bargaining power to get fair prices for their raw milk and help them prepare for the end of milk quotas in 2015. To enter into force, the new regulation still needs to be formally endorsed by the Council. It will apply until the end of June 2020.