"The quality of the land, good prices and the possibility of obtaining subsidies have attracted foreign investors," points out Jurnalul Naţional, which reports that several European newspapers have described Romania as a "new Eldorado".

Under the terms of the country's EU accession treaty, Romania is obliged to deregulate its property market from January 1, 2014 — a move that will remove restrictions on land acquisitions by foreigners. However, in the runup to this date, enterprising investors from abroad have already purchased 10 per cent of the agricultural land in the country via locally registered companies.

According to official figures, 10m of the 11m hectares of agricultural land in Romania are currently under cultivation. But other more realistic estimates set the current level of land use at just 40 per cent.

Jurnalul Naţional is worried by the prospect of agro-industrial multinationals, which make use of monoculture, buying up land owned by small farmers. It is a concern that is shared by Minister of Agriculture, Daniel Constantin, who recently negotiated a deal to improve credit facilities for Romanian farmers with the country’s banks. From now on, the owners of small holdings will be able to use newly purchased land as collateral for loans, which was not possible in the past.

Slovak and Czech authorities are running a “black PR campaign” against Polish food, says a government source quoted by the daily. They publicly stress that the quality of “an overwhelmingly large part” of Polish food is very low. A Czech chief hygiene inspector has even told a television programme, that he “wouldn’t buy Polish food” at all.

“Food exports have become a Polish speciality. In 2012, Poland's food product exports were worth €17bn, compared to €11.7bn in 2008,” explains the daily adding that “local [Czech and Slovak] manufacturers cannot cope with [the Polish] competition.” Consequently, only 42 per cent of food sold in Slovakia is being produced in this country.

The “food war” is going to be one of the main topics of Polish-Slovak consultations to be held today in Poprad, in Slovakia.

Czech farmers have discovered they are to lose €300m in farm subsidies as a result of cuts in agriculture spending in the new 2014-2020 European budget.

The cuts in the Rural Development Fund budget were made with the approval of

Prime minister Petr Nečas and in order to boost resources for the Cohesion Fund. However, Nečas failed to inform his government or parliament of the cuts.

As a result, the UK business daily the Financial Times listed Nečas as one of the major losers in the February budget summit. Farmers are now writing to the Agriculture ministry to protest the decision.

By 502 votes to 137, MEPs voted on February 6 “to adopt a common policy on sustainable fishing. That may seem trivial, but it is in reality a historical vote,” announces Libération The goal “is to reduce pressure on fish stocks to levels that can see them renewed by 2020.” This decision, writes La Vanguardia, represents a “shift in course”, especially because from 2014 onwards, discards – which make up 23 per cent of the catches of EU fleets – will be banned and all the fish caught will have to be brought back to port. It continues –

The need to curb the current overfishing and restore depleted fishing grounds and the awareness of the need to reduce the sizes of the fleets, are the pillars of the current shift to promote rational and sustainable fishing [... ] The fisheries policy embraces ethical values to put an end to the unacceptable habit of throwing back into the sea marine life that has no commercial value [...] Till now, the former fisheries policy has only encouraged overfishing of European stocks: 48 per cent of the estimated stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and close to 90 per cent in the Mediterranean Sea are overexploited.

However, notes Le Monde,, the ban on discards did not meet with agreement all round –

Once landed at port, the fish that today are tossed back into the sea can be turned into fishmeal for animals, which itself brings a risk of developing this “accidental” fishing industry, note critics of this new system.

However, by opting for sustainable fishing, Europe, with the third-largest fleet in the world, may be putting itself at a disadvantage against its international competitors, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany.

It would be naive and presumptuous to believe that its rivals [China and Peru] will follow Europe's noble example. In view of the power of the European fleet, though, much will be gained if the European vessels honour the principles of sustainability when they go fishing in non-European waters.

European Union procedures for the certification of pesticides are too lax, according to a study published on Tuesday by two non-governmental organisations (NGOs). French daily Le Monde reports

According to Pesticide action network-Europe (PAN-Europe) and Générations futures, the European Commission and member states have approved about fifty molecules (used in a dozen pesticides), which are suspected of toxic effects on humans or the environment. The incriminated substances were authorised thanks to a 'resubmission' policy which allows companies to bypass the 1991 European Directive on the evaluation of risks linked to phytosanitary molecules in use in the different EU countries.

“As is often the case in stories about European regulations, the issue is a complicated one”, remarks Le Monde which continues :

Manufacturers, the Commission explains in so many words, were effectively allowed to decide to volontarily take off the market a substance under evaluation while benefiting from a grace period until the end of 2011, when it was to be, in fact, removed. This gave them time to 'resubmit' a mini-application of certification [which requires less data regarding product toxicity]. This fast-track procedure is only possible, Brusselles explains, 'on the condition that there are no clear toxic effects detected during the preliminary study carried out by the reporting Member State.' The NGOs see things from a different angle. François Veillerette, president of Future Generations, sees a "gift" to the industry in the form of a "certification on the cheap". According to the two NGOs, 87 molecules have already attempted to use the fast-track approach and 64 have obtained final certification using this method. For anti-pesticide activists, this "gift" is the result of a compromise with agribusiness chemists in order to reduce the risk of litigation

“[Spanish] agriculture has reacted with indignation to the agreement between the EU and Morocco,” reports El País. The free trade agreement approved February 16 by the European Parliament will significantly increase the volume of Moroccan products imported into the EU, of tomatoes in particular. Concluded to “support democratic reforms in North Africa,” the paper notes, it comes as a “hard blow” for Spanish agriculture, the main exporter to the other EU countries. The agreement, explains agriculture specialist, Vidal Mate -

... facilitates imports that interest the northern countries as consumers, because they increase supply and drive prices lower – and it also helps them export their own cereal, seed oils, milk products and meat to Morocco. Spain is the country that will come off the worst.

Mate criticises the attitude of the EU, which, on December 14, refused to renew its fishing agreement with Morocco because the Moroccans failed to take the interests of the people of Western Sahara into account. The decision forced sixty Spanish ships back to port, angering Madrid -

Beyond the concerns about human rights issues or the problems of the Sahara, the political reasons have been imposed to support the Moroccan friend as the gateway to Europe – and Europe’s shield [...] The economic interests of the countries north of the Pyrenees have prevailed.

In Europe, almost 50% of edible and healthy food “gets wasted during the different processing phases from production to the consumer’s table”, writes El País. This represents on average “half a kilo per person per day but with major variations according to country and sector”, adds the Madrid daily, quoting a European Commission report on food waste discussed on January 19 in the European Parliament.

This may serve as a “loud wake up call”, writes El País. Annually, Europeans waste

... 179 edible and healthy kilograms of food each [...] the major portion of which is household related, at 42% (of which 60% is apparently avoidable). Producers follow close behind on 39%; catering sector 14%; and lower down the scale, distributors at 5%.

Taking into account that 16 million Europeans receive aid from charity organisations, the report asks to-

... redistribute leftover food to poorer people which would end up as refuse.

The report drafted by Italian socialist MEP Salvatore Caronna calls on the Commission to promote measures to reduce waste, such as the double date labelling [sale date limit and latest possible consumption] and with discounts on food products damaged  or close to the expiry date.

"European parliament vetos fishing agreement with Morocco over Western Sahara," headlines El País. On 14 December, MEPs decided not to renew the agreement, set to expire in February 2012, that allows 119 European boats (100 of which are Spanish) to fish in Moroccan waters. In exchange, Rabat receives 36 million euros per year.

The European Commission wanted to renew the agreement for a year, while holding talks on a new compromise. However, the Madrid daily explains that "concerns over Western Sahara and the environment" were deemed more important by Strasbourg “which expressed scepticism on the issue of respect for Sahrawi rights."

The vote in parliament was largely based on a report by MEP Carl Haglund, who raised the question of the legality of an agreement that included fishing rights off the coast of Western Sahara, a terriory annexed by Morocco, which is not recognised by the EU, and the question of the benefit to the Sahrawi people. The liberal Finnish parliamentarian also expressed concern over the  “excessive exploitation of fishing resources” and the “poor cost-benefit outcome” of the agreement.

El País points out that the decision, which "goes against the opinion of the European Commission and EU member states," has prompted opposition from the Spanish government. Morocco immediately ordered all European boats to leave its territorial waters, including waters off the coast of Western Sahara.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Cioloş, presented the draft reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Brussels on 12 October.

Adevărul notes that “Romania, like its counterparts from the East, will receive more funding in the fiscal period 2014-2020. The new reform benefits these states, which will gain 30 percent more in subsidies, to the detriment of the countries of western Europe.”

The main changes made ​​to the CAP budget [55 billion euros per year, or 40 percent of the total EU budget] consist of simplifying individual payments, helping young farmers start up, and making the CAP simpler and more streamlined. The goal: to allow farmers to be more flexible and adapt better to markets.

Moreover, the Romanian daily continues, “the aid to large operators will be capped, grants will be given out based on the acreage actually farmed and not in terms of the total acreage or its production capacity. The budget for innovation and research will be doubled. Moreover, 30 percent of direct aid granted by the EU will be linked to measures to protect the environment,” writes Adevărul.

If Romania, which has the largest number of farms in the EU (32 percent of the EU total) welcomes this reform, the large landowners of Britain and Spain have something to worry about.

"The EU will cap aid to ‘sofa farmers’,” leads Público. The Madrid daily notes that the Commission has initiated “a special crusade to revolutionise agricultural subsidies.” In its view, the most novel element of the proposal is to control the subsidies to large landowners and farms whose owners do not engage in agriculture as their main activity. “This will directly affect the big landowners like the Queen of England or [Prince] Albert of Monaco, and in Spain, the symbolic case of the Duchess of Alba”, the newspaper writes.

"Spain is importing a little cucumber" headlines La Razón, in a play on words emphasising the “chump change” Spanish farmers are getting back as compensation for losses brought on by the E. coli scare in Germany. Calling for honour to be restored to the humble cucumber, the MEP from the UPyD (Unión, Progreso y Democracia) Party, Francisco Sosa Wagner, is pictured on the front page brandishing one during his speech to the European Parliament.

Following the announcement from the European Commission that European Union farmers will receive 150 million euros in economic assistance, Madrid, however, is not amused. As a consequence of the premature suspicions raised against Spanish cucumbers at the start of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, Spanish farmers alone are taking weekly losses estimated at EUR 200 million. The daily also believes that Germany, “castigated yesterday by Brussels because of its alarmism and incompetence, cannot just slip out the back door."

If the Spanish cucumber is faring badly, the Romanian cucumber is flying high through the crisis; it has even “beaten E. coli and is circulating freely in Europe", writes Romania libera. And while everyone is tossing aside the “farbio” type of cucumber (large, normal in the EU), the little Romanian cucumbers are selling everywhere like sweet cakes.

An “EU sugar crisis”, headlines Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Compared with last year, prices are up 30-40 percent and all that, argues the business daily, because of EU-imposed production quotas, natural disasters internationally and poorer than usual crops. EU sugar market reform, launched in 2006, provided for reducing the guaranteed minimum price by 36 percent and closing down loss-making factories. As a result, the EU’s sugar output started falling, to 16.25 million tons in 2009/2010, down from 17.35 million tons in the previous year. Poland produced 1.43 million tons of sugar last year but, under the EU limit, can use only 1.405 million tons of that and export the rest outside the EU. Yet this quota is not enough to meet growing domestic demand, which means more and more sugar has to be imported from outside the EU. However, the commodity is in short supply on international markets too because of weaker crops caused by natural disasters. “A rise in sugar prices is inevitable”, warns the daily, heralding a wave of bankruptcies among bakers and sugar companies, whose businesses are nearing the “profitability threshold”.

By 2020, the common agricultural policy (CAP) will be “more environmentally friendly, more evenhanded, more efficient and effective,” announced Commissioner Dacian Cioloş, when he presented proposals for the reform of the CAP on 18 November. “So that’s the slogan,” remarks Libération. In practice, the text aims to offer greater assistance to small farmers, new member states and environmentally friendly agriculture. At the same time it makes no bones about “advocating a ceiling on direct payments to farmers much to the annoyance of Paris and Berlin,” explains the French daily, which views the project as “heralding an ambitious overhaul” to restore the legitimacy of a policy that accounts for 40% of the EU’s budget.

Dacian Cioloş has avoided the “radical option of setting aside income support for farmers to focus solely on environmental goals, or at the other end of the spectrum a minimal reform to reduce disparities and inequities in the distribution of subsidies to farmers in various states,” remarks Le Monde.

For Les Echos, the new CAP will attempt to occupy the middle ground because it will likely represent a “break with the status quo that is so close to the hearts of the two main beneficiaries of the current policy (France and Germany), but it will not implement the drastic cuts demanded by the United Kingdom.” 

“Sweden leads war against Danish fishing pirates.” In a long investigative report, the Göteborgs-Posten accuses Danish trawlers of fishing in North Sea waters that have been declared off-limits by the EU to protect cod stocks threatened with extinction. The daily explains that since the ban was established in 2009, the Swedish coastguard has counted 70 “pirate” boats in Swedish territorial waters, 16 of which have been reported to the authorities. “We do not fish in waters that have been declared off-limits,” responded a representative of the Danish fishermen contacted by the newspaper. “We want to protect the cod just as much as anyone.”

A heat wave in Europe, torrential rain and fires, chiefly in Russia, are responsible for a panic on the global grain/milling market, Gazeta Wyborcza reports on the front page, warning against an inevitable surge in food prices. “Grain and flour prices are growing by the day. Literally. The price of wheat grows by 6 EUR per ton daily on the Paris bourse, from 110 EUR a month ago to 210 EUR yesterday,” reports the paper. Wheat prices have risen 60 percent over the last month, the sharpest such rise since 1959, notes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The situation has been aggravated by the Russian government’s decision on Thursday to introduce a ban on grain exports, “which means that the Arab countries – the largest importers of grain in the world – are forced to be importing it from the EU or the US,” adds the Warsaw daily.

“Romania, land of bananas” announces România libera. In the first quarter of this year, exports of bananas (over 1,000 tonnes), citrus fruits, mangoes, pineapples, and coconuts from tropical climes were well in excess of exports of tomatoes, cucumbers and apples. The daily explains that the import-export statistics, which are responsible for the apparent "tropicalisation of the country," highlight Romania’s role as a transport hub for fruit arriving from third countries, along with some little known facts about the export chain: for example, the fact that Romania “imports more bananas from Hungary than it does from Panama.” Most of the fruit re-exported by Romania is destined for markets in other EU countries.

A proposed European food hygiene directive poses a threat to home-made Austrian bacon, worries Der Standard. By applying the same standards to your corner butcher and to industrial slaughterhouses, it would make life hard for small-scale producers, requiring them, however large or small their operation, to "reserve a room for the vet or carry out the slaughtering and carving in separate rooms”. As a result, "700 businesses have stopped slaughtering altogether”, whilst on-site slaughtering at farms has declined by 80%, reports the Viennese daily, in favour of large-scale abattoirs and the “Austrian meat industry”.

"What has got into José Manuel Barroso, who used to be a more than able tactician?" wonders Le Soir in the wake of the European Commission's decision to authorize the cultivation of Amflora, a GMO potato  produced by German industrial giant BASF. On an issue which, the Brussels' daily notes, has divided public opinion, "Was it really necessary for the  Commission to choose its camp – officially in the name of ‘responsible innovation’ but clearly disregarding the precautionary principle that has informed policy over the last 12 years?" Le Soir voices its outrage at a decision "that was unanimously approved at the conclusion of a written procedure, without any real debate between the members of the Commission," and its timing: "the Barroso commission had yet to take an important decision. This will count as the first!"

"Cardiac arrest" reads the To Ethnos report on the farmers' protest, which has paralysed transport networks in Greece, and halted freight shipments from abroad. The daily explains that "for the last ten days, motorways in the centre and north of the country have been rendered impassable by roadblocks, and the farmers are also picketing ports and customs stations." Traffic from neighbouring countries has been affected to the point where "the Bulgarian government has appealed to the European Commission to re-open a number of transport arteries, but the protests are likely to continue in the near future. On 25 January, over 500 farmers marched through central Athens. "The farmers, who benefitted substantially from European funding in the 1980s, are demanding fresh subsidies," which the daily reports to be worth one billion euros. "However, the state coffers are empty, and Brussels is pressing the government to reduce its rising budget deficit. Now that stocks of raw materials are starting to dwindle, the movement is determined to induce a state of cardiac arrest in the country. However, Prime Minister Georges Papandreou has insisted that he will not bow to pressure."

With the new year only barely begun, numerous products are already seeing 5 to 10% price hikes, announces România liberă, which has published a list of the worst affected products: fuels, energy, bread, fruit, vegetables and cigarettes. But the steepest increases will be on meat, with a whopping 50% on beef and mutton and 20 to 30% on poultry. The surge in prices, explains România liberă, is mainly due to the suppression of farming subsidies in accordance with the country's commitments to the Eurpean Union. The newspaper notes that Romanian farmers, who fear that the "market will be unable to adapt," are asking the government to "request a dispensation from Brussels to allow them to continue receiving subsidies."

After an 11-year moratorium, the Portuguese are now allowed to fish for cod (bacalhau) again, a staple of their national cuisine, off the Canadian coast. These waters, managed by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), were reopened this past September for cod and redfish, explains the Portuguese paper Público, adding that the total EU catch quota for 2010 comes to 3,136 metric tons, roughly a third of which is pegged for Portugal. The current negotiations in Brussels concerning 2010 quotas are aimed at curbing overfishing, which, according to the European Commission, is taking a toll on 80% of aquatic species. Hence the Commission’s efforts to shrink global production by 25%, notes La Stampa, with peaks of up to 90% for species like dogfish. As a result, adds the Turin-based Italian daily, consumers will have to dig a little deeper in their pockets if they want fish for dinner.

A new plague, Q fever or Coxiella infection, is threatening to ravage livestock herds in the Netherlands. In the coming weeks, all non-vaccinated pregnant ewes and goats will be slaughtered whether they are infected or not, reports NRC Handelsblad. Present in the country since 2007, the disease, which is highly contagious to animals and humans, causes miscarriages in infected animals and is often spread by birthing products. Six people are known to have died from Q fever in 2009, explains the daily, which notes that the planned measure "will bring back memories of the traumatic slaughter of 10 million pigs during the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 1997 and 1998." According to NRC, the imminent "massacre" could have been avoided if the government had implemented a proper testing and prevention campaign in 2007.

“Europe deaf to farmers’ outcry,” headlines La Libre Belgique the day after the European Commission refused to lower dairy production quotas. Hard-hit by the ongoing crisis, farmers for months have been calling for quotas to be frozen, or even slashed, to stop prices’ plummeting. The Commission has proposed an aid package, but ruled out changing the tack set by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “health check” in 2008.

To save the dairy sector we need to consume its produce, declared European agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, before castigating consumers for lapping up “Coca-Cola, which costs between €1 and €1.26 a litre” – a lot more than milk. “An argument […] that betrays a certain perplexity all the same,” opines the Belgian daily.

A European regulation allowing for the production of rosé that mixes red and white wines is turning French wine makers against Europe, reports Le Monde. In the French South-West electoral constituency of Haute-Garonne, a traditional wine-making region, none of the 24 lists for the European elections have forgotten to heap scorn on the projected regulation. Seeking to defend traditional means of production, wine makers fear it will open the markets “to all kinds of wine, and any old kind of wine”. “Rosé is the new Polish plumber,” quips Le Monde, alluding to this symbol of cheap labour coming in from Central Europe first popularised by right wing politician Viscount Philippe de Villiers.