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The next Brussels Development Briefing will be held in Brussels on 23rd September 2009 from 8h30 to 13h00 on “Upgrading to compete in a globalised world: What opportunities and challenges for SMEs in agriculture in ACP countries?” (Venue: European Commission, Centre Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, Room 1D). This Briefing will discuss the effects of the financial and food crisis on enterprises in developing countries and also the opportunities this can provide to link local SMEs to global economies. Experts will also discuss investment programmes needed to support SMEs in order to promote growth and investments, upgrade and upscale SMEs to reach regional and exports markets. This session will also share concrete examples of SMEs being successful by boosting innovation and technology, processing, value-addition, infrastructure upgrading.
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Wednesday, 19 September 2018
MEPs approved, by 447 votes in favour, 70 against and 16 abstentions, draft legislation to extend aid for buying up butter and skimmed milk powder, which was due to end in August, to at least February next year. The aid should also apply to cheese, say MEPs. But in an additional resolution on the problems facing dairy farmers, MEPs also called for more action to address medium and long term problems in the dairy sector. Parliament has urged the European Commission repeatedly to do more to tackle the crisis.
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Thursday, 17 September 2009
The European Commission today put forward a blueprint for scaling up international finance to help developing countries combat climate change. This initiative aims to maximise the chances of concluding an ambitious global climate change agreement at the December U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. By 2020 developing countries are likely to face annual costs of around €100 billion to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published the results of on-going work to develop methodologies to assess the cumulative effects resulting from consumer exposure to pesticides. The work looks at a group of pesticides that have similar chemical structure and toxic effects to see if their impact on human health can be assessed collectively rather than just on an individual basis.
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Despite the efforts made in recent years by the European Union, to alleviate the suffering of animals sent to slaughter, the problem still exists. Each year, more than 360 million pigs, sheep and calves, 330 million chickens and 25 million fur-bearing animals are slaughtered in the European Union and almost each European country still has its own excessively cruel slaughtering rules. In addition, many animals simply die during their transportation to the slaughterhouses, according to European analysts. Amid the tightening of national legislations, regulating slaughtering, many European farmers prefer to export their live cattle to other countries where the slaughter is performed by methods that are banned in their own countries. Many experts have hopes for the new European regulations in the area of slaughtering, which has already been developed by some European experts in the middle of last year.
The National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has voiced concerns over the European Union’s ‘inflexibility’ in the ongoing negotiations with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) over the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Speaking in Abuja at the weekend after a two day sensitisation meeting of stakeholders, NANTS President Ken Ukaoha said that over the past eight years of negotiations, the EU have refused to take into consideration the peculiar situation of African nations as the least developed countries of the world.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
The next Brussels Development Briefing will be held in Brussels on 23rd September 2009 from 8h30 to 13h00 on “Upgrading to compete in a globalised world: What opportunities and challenges for SMEs in agriculture in ACP countries?” (Venue: European Commission, Centre Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, Room 1D). This Briefing will discuss the effects of the financial and food crisis on enterprises in developing countries and also the opportunities this can provide to link local SMEs to global economies. Experts will also discuss investment programmes needed to support SMEs in order to promote growth and investments, upgrade and upscale SMEs to reach regional and exports markets. This session will also share concrete examples of SMEs being successful by boosting innovation and technology, processing, value-addition, infrastructure upgrading.
The 2959th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 7 September 2009 took note of the request made by Poland, supported by Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Austria, Slovakia and Finland, inviting the Commission to take concrete measures aimed at stabilising the cereals market. Poland suggested a number of new possible intervention instruments and the rapid use of existing ones under EC legislation.
The 2959th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 7 September 2009 took note of the report from the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry presented by the Commission. The report issued in March contained thirty recommendations and a 'roadmap of key initiatives' was endorsed in July to implement them.
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The 2959th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 7 September 2009 took note of the Commission communication on the situation on the dairy market in 2009 and had an exchange of views on the matter framed by a Presidency questionnaire. Most delegations welcomed the in-depth analysis carried out by the EC but had difficulties to agree on which measures would be best suited to solve the current difficulties. Several delegations indicated that the measures proposed were insufficient to solve the crisis. However, the outcome of the health check was not put into question.
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