#vieuws

In this latest Brussels Briefing on Agriculture, AGRA FACTS journalists Rose O’Donovan and Ed Bray provide an update on the delayed approval of three genetically modified soybeans for import for animal feed, the latest news on the EU’s trade talks with Mercosur and key upcoming meetings. As EU-Mercosur negotiations go up a gear, the AGRA FACTS team got hold of the EU’s market access offer to the Latin American bloc. Based on the leaked draft text, the EU plans to offer Mercosur an annual Tariff Rate Quota of 78,000 tonnes of hormone-free beef.  Twenty Member States slammed the move at the Council meeting on April 11, saying the inclusion of sensitive products such as beef at this early stage in the talks was counterproductive. Meanwhile, EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan is embarking on another trade mission to China and Japan  (April 16-22) to stimulate trade in agricultural products. Looking ahead, the future of the CAP will be at the top of the agenda at the Informal Farm Council in Amsterdam at the end of May (30-31).

Jennifer Baker presents EU Tweets of the Week, looking at the good, the bad and the ugly in the European Union Twittersphere this week:

The Good: Hurrah! A landslide victory for the new EU Data Protection rules agreed on Thursday by a large majority of MEPs!

The Bad: Amateur video shot in Bulgaria shows vigilantes arresting and molesting migrants.

The Ugly: ECR Group Chairman Syed Kamall MEP has gone one step too far in the European Parliament. Is this an hemicycle or a circus?

Send in your suggestions using the hashtag #EUtweets!

On 18 March 2016, EU leaders and Turkey brokered an agreement to better tackle and, eventually, put an end to illegal immigration from Turkey to Greece and replace it with legal relocation means. However, less than a month after its fully-fledged implementation, the deal is at the heart of a blazing controversy as NGOs and agencies, such as Doctors without Borders and Amnesty International, deemed it ‘profoundly inhumane, unrealistic and miles away from EU’s core values‘. Jeremy Jenard is joined by Janis Emmanouilidis, Director of Studies at the European Policy Centre (EPC), to discuss this sensitive issue and take stock of the latest instruments put forward by the EU.

In an exclusive interview with ViEUws, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Achim Steiner, talks to AGRA FACTS journalist Rose O’Donovan about the urgent need to reinvent the agricultural economy. He insists that sustainable agriculture and food security are at the heart of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders in New York last September. Steiner makes a case for a “revolution in thinking” as the current food and farming system has been “ruinous” in many parts of the world in ecological and social terms. Finally, he echoes the words of UN Special Advisor Amina Mohammed – seen as one of the key architects of the post-2015 development agenda – that these ambitious and universal plans must leave nobody behind.

After years of delay, the Civil Liberties Committee in the European Parliament finally approves the Passenger Name Record system for the EU. The EPP Group welcomed the move as an important tool to track and catch terrorists, after it was blocked by other parties over privacy concerns.