Newsletter EUBIA
January 2018

Agriculture Corner

The Call for Proposals follows the Commission's decision to increase the funding for agricultural products by an amount of €27 million.The work programme for agriculture (total funding €169 million)  aims at promoting EU food products in EU and non-EU countries with high potential to increase exports, such as Canada, Japan China, Mexico or Colombia.
The topics that the EU is going to tackle are EU quality schemes and labels (geographical indications, organic products) and specially sustainable breeding (focus on sheep and goat). Also the Commission provides funding to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables due to its concerns on healthy eating.

On Tuesday 31st of January an Info Day was held on the Call for Proposals for Promotion of Agricultural Products. 

Please find here the Press Release on the Calls for Proposals.
Please find here the Calls for Proposals.

The European Commission is planning to change the current system of the CAP, the Common Agricultural Policy, which absorbs a 40% of the total EU budget. The new system should rely on the principle of subsidiarity, rather than a centralised system as it is currently happening. Traditionally, the countries receive direct payments to farmers, that being Pillar 1 (payments) 70% of the total, while Pillar 2 (rural development funds) receives a smaller proportion. The objective is to transfer some budget from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2, motivating farmers to act green in farming in order to get subsidies.

There has been a general petition by farmers to make amendments to the current policy due to the heavy bureaucratic system. Furthermore, a change is needed on the distribution system, as the funds are obtained mostly by big farm owners (being the payments system based on acreage). With the new system, the subsidies that farmers get will depend on their contribution to environmental and rural development schemes instead. The new system would be that the European Commission defines the general vision of the European agriculture sector, such as market oversight or environmental rules, and policies are implemented at the national level according to specific needs of the country. 

Please find here the complete news about this issue (page 26).

DowDuPont is a merger from two companies, Dow Chemical and DuPont that came together on August last year (for 18 to 24 months), bringing together three business (DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection, and Dow AgroSciences) in agriculture, material science and specialty products.

The aim of the merger was to ‘create a world-class agriculture leader with a comprehensive and balanced portfolio and a robust pipeline of innovative solutions across seed, crop protection, seed-applied technologies and digital agriculture’ as said by Pierre Flye Sainte Marie, head of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa region), Agriculture Division of DowDuPont. Since its creation the three divisions work jointly under the structure of DowDuPont. However, at the end of the merger period they will be separated in three independent specialized companies that will be publicly traded but will maintain a business relationship.

Please find here the Q&A to Pierre Flye Sainte Marie.

Energy Corner

The EU has been aiming for a decarbonization of the environment and a green energy transition. However, the reality is that the EU is still dependant on non-renewable resources like coal. Renewable resources such as wind and solar power are highly dependent on weather and season conditions. Therefore, other sources are needed for energy security reasons such as coal and gas. The issue is that the EU has been giving subsidies to coal-fired plants, and now, it has been questioned if these subsidies should continue to be provided. Moreover, gas companies could be benefiting from this decision. The European Commission has made a proposal to limit payments only to generators emitting fewer than 550 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour. This implies that coal plants would be eliminated, which will only leave the option for gas. The proposal has provoked different positions on Member States and marked the beginning of a lobbying campaign from Euroelectric, opposing the 550 rule as it could lead to additional costs up to €50 billion; and the main gas and renewable energy-focused companies and associations that could benefit from the 550 rule.

In conclusion, this proposal has created a debate within the institutions that will be solved with the decision of the Parliament and the Council.

Please find here the complete news about this issue (page 32).

In December 2017, the European Commission presented a list of priority energy projects, including fossil fuel projects. The aim of these projects consists in enabling the EU to comply with the energy and climate objectives.

However, the list has been strongly criticised by the Parliament. The main discordance lies on the  large number of gas projects; the European Commission states that the number of gas projects has decreased but this is questioned by the Parliament as the Commission has put some projects together. As a reaction to the list, the GUE/NGL lawmaker Xabier Benito Ziluaga and Greens/EFA MEP Michèle Rivasi are planning to raise an objection in the ITRE committee. As a result, both lawmakers and MEPs would vote on the list for the first time, although not on specific projects. The next step will take place in the following ITRE’s meeting in February and MEPs are likely going to vote. If the vote results in a rejection, the list will go under plenary in March. A qualified majority could reject the list completely, but this is unlikely to happen due to support from the EPP and ECR groups.

Please find here the complete news about this issue.

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