EU Commission unveils first ever climate law

The European Commission last week published a draft of its first ever EU Climate Law, which aims to enshrine climate neutrality – net zero emissions – by 2050 in law.

On the way towards achieving this goal, the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions reductions target for 2030 will be increased to at least 50 percent and towards 55 percent compared with 1990 levels.

Measures towards emissions reduction and climate neutrality will be taken at both EU and Member State level, with Member States required to produce national plans on reductions and adaptation.

The document sets out a plan for assessing the progress of both every five years from September 2023.

The draft text does not mention agriculture specifically or provide much information on measures, but more detail is expected in the upcoming Farm to Fork strategy. The UK has already announced its own net-zero target by 2050.

The latest on the EUs anti-dumping duties for fertiliser

The UK farming unions along with other farming associations, notably the Irish Farmers’ Association, have long been calling for a suspension of the anti-dumping duties for fertilisers coming into the EU.

A suspension would reduce fertiliser prices and, in the longer term, increase competition in the EU fertiliser market.

Following the EUs review of these duties at the end of last year, to which the UK and other Member States submitted evidence, the Commission is scrutinising this issue and are planning to visit several European farms to assess the impact of the investigation and verify the evidence.

The investigation will look at the impact the EU’s anti-dumping duties on imports of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from Russia, the consequent competition issues on the European fertiliser market and the cumulative impact on farmgate input costs.

Once the investigation concludes, we are expecting a decision to be made on this issue in summer 2020. Despite the political nature of a decision to open up any EU market to Russian imports, the current strain farm incomes’ across Europe are under, combined with low gas prices and reports of high profits from European fertiliser companies all combine to support a decision to remove anti-dumping duties from AN fertiliser.

UK/EU negotiations on future FTA

The negotiations between the UK and the EU kicked off with the inaugural meetings in Brussels over four days last week.

The discussions were described as constructive and calm with both parties exploring the detail of each other’s mandates.

It’s clear that there is a lot to do to reach an agreement and the pace is expected to hot up when the next round of negotiations start next week with the prospect of both sides tabling their legal texts, possibly as early as the end of this week.

Key for agriculture will be the EU’s insistence on the so-called level playing field.