New rules to increase consumer trust in organic products and promote growth of this market were informally agreed between European Parliament and Council of the EU negotiators. Among other, the new rules include strict, risk-based controls along the supply chain; imports should comply with EU standards; farmers will be obliged to apply precautionary measures to avoid pesticide contamination. The agreed text now needs to be approved by the European Parliament Agriculture Committee, the Parliament plenary and the Council before it can enter into force. Chemistry plays a fundamental role in defining and controlling thresholds of contaminants in organic food.
As early as December 2017, researchers will be able to use the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) research facilities located in Ispra (Italy), and thereafter in Geel (Belgium), Karlsruhe (Germany) and Petten (Netherlands), thus helping to maximise the benefits of these world-class infrastructures and laboratories. Past successful cooperation with universities, research institutes and SMEs has shown that there is big interest in using JRC facilities. With this initiative, the JRC aims to spread scientific knowledge, boost competitiveness and help to bridge the gap between research and industry. The results will also feed into JRC’s mission to support EU policymaking. The calls for access to the first three laboratories are available on the dedicated portal.
Earlier in July the EU ambassadors agreed the Council’s position on the 2018 EU draft budget, ahead of the negotiations with the European Parliament starting in October. The Council’s position for 2018 amounts to €158.9 billion in commitments and €144.4 billion in payments, up by 0.6% and 7.4% respectively compared to the 2017 EU budget. Payments increase significantly because the implementation of the 2014-2020 programmes is expected to reach “cruising speed” following the initial start-up period. EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 would count with €10.6 billion in commitments and €10.8 billion in payments, which is an increase by 2.6% and 5.8% respectively compared to the 2017 EU budget. Regarding Erasmus+, the proposal foresees €2.3 billion in commitments, an increase of 9.5%, and €2.1 billion in payments an increase of 13.1%.
Member States´ representatives voted in favour of European Commission’s proposal to reduce the presence of acrylamide in food. Once implemented, the new regulation will require that food business operators (FBOs) apply mandatory measures to reduce the presence of acrylamide, proportionate to the size and nature of their establishment.
The agreed text will now be sent to the Council and the European Parliament. The entry into force could be foreseen spring 2018. The Commission is also planning to initiate discussions on additional measures, such as setting maximum levels of acrylamide in certain foods without delay once this Regulation is adopted. Acrylamide is a carcinogenic substance that forms from naturally present free asparagine (amino-acid) and sugars during high temperature processing, such as frying, roasting and baking, particularly in potato-based products, cereal-based products, coffee and coffee substitutes. EuCheMS has submitted input to the European Commission on this topic.
Earlier this month, the European Research Council (ERC) announced its 2018 grant competitions with a total budget of around €1.86 billion, most of which earmarked for early- to mid-career researchers. In addition, the ERC is reintroducing Synergy Grants, the funding scheme for groups of two to four scientists who jointly address ambitious research problems.
The Work Programme includes all the well-known and established ERC funding schemes: Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants, as well as Proof of Concept Grants for ERC grantees who wish to explore the innovation potential of their research results. What is new is the Synergy Grants scheme. Building on the experience of the 2012 and 2013 pilot competitions, the ERC Scientific Council decided to reintroduce Synergy Grants for groups of two to four excellent principal investigators. The grants may be awarded for up to €10 million for 6 years. The ultimate goal of the scheme is to give support to close collaborative interactions that will enable transformative research, cross-fertilizing disciplines and capable of yielding ground-breaking scientific results.
The first 2018 grant competitions are already open, the other competitions will follow, according to the indicative calendar.
The conclusions of the workshop Glyphosate: Harmless Tool or Sneaky Poison? are now available online. Among other, the conclusions call for more research regarding maximum daily intake of glyphosate, to develop standard methods for reliable measurements, or to increase transparency through the funding of dossiers submitted to ECHA/EFSA. The conclusions and other materials from this event can be found online at http://www.euchems.eu/?p=8910. This workshop was co-organised by MEP Pavel Poc, EuCheMS and the ECTN earlier this year at the European Parliament.
