Northern Ireland Protocol
Vice-president Šef?ovi? and foreign secretary Truss met recently for the ninth meeting of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee in Brussels where they underlined that the UK and EU share an overriding commitment to protect the Belfast Agreement. They underlined the ongoing determination of both parties to ensure that the outstanding issues in the context of the Protocol are addressed, and durable solutions found for the benefit of citizens, businesses and stability in Northern Ireland.
EU discusses the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on EU agriculture
EU Agriculture Ministers have expressed their unanimous solidarity with Ukraine and called for the necessary food and humanitarian aid to be mobilised. They discussed the potentially significant impact of the current crisis on the market situation for agricultural products, as well as on access to agricultural raw materials and inputs.
Following the meeting and the statements by ministers, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, expressed his intention to:
- Activate crisis monitoring tools, in particular the European food security crisis preparedness and response mechanism set up by the Commission, and the high-level working group on the pig meat sector announced at the Council meeting on 21 February;
- Consider introducing exceptional measures under the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation aimed at the sectors most affected by the rise in input costs;
- Consider adopting measures aimed at securing and freeing up Europe’s production capacity in 2022, such as using fallow land for protein crops.
These measures will be discussed by the Special Committee on Agriculture as well as at the next Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 21 March.
