Several important topics are on the agenda today at the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers.
How can honey bees and fish be better protected are central questions in the debate.
Luxembourg - With debates on bee protection, an end to fur farming in Europe and better protection of fish stocks, the EU agriculture and fisheries ministers are starting a two-day meeting in Luxembourg.
In addition, it is expected that the agreement reached on Friday to reform the European agricultural reform will be accepted by the EU states.
Species conservationists from WWF fear that Germany is campaigning for insufficient surveillance in the so-called fisheries control ordinance.
In view of the overfishing of the seas, it is negligent if Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) campaigns to ensure that controls for most fishing vessels do not work, said Christoph Heinrich, nature conservation director of WWF Germany.
Seven out of eight important fish stocks in the Baltic Sea are already overfished.
Camera surveillance on board is currently only provided for ships of a certain size.
The Ministry of Agriculture does not contradict the fact that such controls only affect a small part of the fleet, but emphasizes that the large ships recorded are responsible for the absolute majority of the fishing.
Specifically, bee protection is about a threshold value for certain chemicals that are used in agriculture. One of the debates is whether this value should be uniform across Europe. The dispute over bee protection has been simmering for a long time: the EU countries rejected guidelines on bee protection presented by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2013. The chemical industry in particular feared lower sales due to strict requirements. Bees are the main pollinators of plants. According to the EU Commission, every tenth species of bees and butterflies in Europe is threatened with extinction, and a third is shrinking. Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have joined forces in another initiative for more animal protection.You are calling for an EU-wide ban on long animal transports to third countries such as Morocco or Turkey.
In addition, Austria and the Netherlands bring a proposal on Monday that could bring an end to fur farming in Europe. Germany has already announced support. The industry hit the headlines during the corona pandemic because millions of minks were killed in Denmark and the Netherlands after infections with the virus were detected. The Netherlands - once one of the largest mink fur producers in Europe - have already decided to end fur farming. The last mink farms should close in 2024. dpa
