The first priority of the French EU Presidency in the first half of 2022 under the ‘Agriculture and forestry’ heading is to ‘encourage Council discussions on reciprocal environmental and health production standards for European products and products imported from third countries with the aim of subjecting imported products to certain production requirements applied in the European Union where necessary, to strengthen the protection of health or the environment on the largest possible scale, in keeping with World Trade Organization rules (“mirror clauses”)’.
One of the issues on the French Presidency agenda will be the completion of the outstanding legislation necessary to fully implement the Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMP) Regulation (EU) 2019/6. This legislation came into actual effect last Friday 28 January 2022. It can be seen as the first example of the use of a mirror clause for the protection of health. It imposes additional restrictions on the use of antibiotics for animal production in the EU and extends certain of these restrictions to imported animals and animal products.… Read the rest