The 2024 EU election results are in
Last week’s EU elections saw 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) elected to the European Parliament. As predicted, the Parliament has swung to the right, with the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) winning 184 seats (+8), the hard right European Conservatives and Reformists 73 seats (+4), and Identity and Democracy 58 seats (+9). The Socialist and Democrats maintained their 139 seats (+/-0) and are the second largest party in the Parliament. The liberal Renew group lost a significant number of seats (80, -22). The Greens also lost seats (52, -19) and the Left lost one seat (36, -1). This Parliament will also see more non-aligned MEPs (95, +36). The EPP, S&D and Renew continue to command a majority in the Parliament, but the extent to which individual MEPs support this informal coalition is not known. Current Commission President, Ursula Von der Leyen (EPP), is vying for a second term as Commission President and needs 361 votes to secure this. The EPP hopes to form an alliance with S&D and Renew to reach this threshold.
In France, with its party losing heavily to two extreme right-wing parties, President Emmanual Macron dissolved the French Parliament and announced a snap election. Belgium’s Prime Minister announced his resignation after his Liberal party’s heavy losses.
The Netherlands seeks to drive organic consumption
Under the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, the Commission outlined its ambition to have 25% of land under organic production by 2030. The Dutch Government, who are struggling to increase its share of organic production from 4.5%, launched a promotional campaign in attempt to grow the sector. The campaign will inform consumers about organic food, what its benefits are and what the EU organic mark means. The Netherlands aims to reach 15% organic agriculture by 2030.
Finland set to vaccinate humans against bird flu
Finland is set to receive vaccines to protect people against avian flu, delivered by company CSL Seqirus. The EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) will sign a procurement contract for 640,000 doses, and the first doses will be sent to Finland due to the risk of workers in mink farms.
State aid
As expected, the Commission is consulting on the possibility to raise the de minimis amount under agriculture state aid rules from €25,000 per beneficiary to €37,000. The Agricultural de minimis Regulation exempts small amounts from state aid control since they are deemed to have no impact on competition and trade in the Single Market. The Commission claim that the increase responds to the erosion of the value of the current limit by inflation. It will be interesting to see if the same logic applies when the CAP budget for the next forecasting period is set.
Ukraine stops export of sugar to the EU
Acting Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi announced that Ukraine will stop all sugar shipments to the EU as of June 1 because it has used up its limit of duty-free exports for 2024. From June 1, the government introduced a zero sugar quota, which will be in effect until the end of the year. However, Ukrainian agricultural producers continue to export sugar to Africa, the Middle East and the UK. The decision potentially pre-empts the Commission from having to apply an emergency brake on imports which is part of the recently adopted emergency trade measures (ATMs), under which Kyiv was only allowed to ship 262,000 tons of duty-free sugar to the EU this year (the average of the past 2.5 years).
EU increases tariffs for Russian and Belarusian grain
A regulation has been approved that aims to stop the imports of grain from Russia and Belarus into the EU by introducing higher import duties. The higher tariffs will be in effect from 1 July and affect cereals, oilseeds and derived products produced in the two countries.
The measure also aims to end imports of grain produced in Ukrainian territories appropriated by Russia, preventing Moscow from using revenues from cereal exports to fund the war.
The regulation was approved with the support of all Members States, with Hungary abstaining. The tariffs do not affect exports to countries outside the EU to preserve global food security.
EC reaches comprise agreement on food waste
The European Council has reached a compromise agreement on food waste prevention. The agreement would see a reduction target of 10% in the processing and manufacturing sector, and a 30% reduction in retail, distribution, food services, and households. Primary production remains excluded from the targets, but a report on food waste and losses in the primary production sector would be required by December 2027. This may be accompanied by a legislative proposal. The agreement is in-line with the Commission’s proposal but is less ambitious than the Parliament position adopted in March 2024.
The Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the EU (COREPER) will review the compromise text and forward it to the Council on Environment for Environment Ministers to adopt the general approach on 17 June 2024. Trilogues will begin after summer.
