At the end of the European Commission 2019-2024 mandate, this post reflects on the legislative changes proposed by the European Commission to improve the sustainability of the agri-food sector. Overall, the new regulatory developments can be seen as a positive step towards sustainability in the sector, but much remains to be done as the definition of sustainability remains unclear and many areas do not appear to be on the path to sustainability, argues Clara Colonna.

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Whilst the responses of the World Health Organization and the EU to the Covid-19 pandemic seem to be aligning, there is still uncertainty as to the facilitation of free movement not only within the EU but also internationally. In this blogpost, Raluca Nedelcu and Lucky Belder argue that governments worldwide have adopted measures without concern for their long-term impact on the global economy and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Public health measures such as the EU Digital COVID Certificate should take their impact on international relations into account and, in particular, measures adopted by governments should not create discrepancies and unfair advantages at an international level.

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Whilst the responses of the World Health Organization and the EU to the Covid-19 pandemic seem to be aligning, there is still uncertainty as to the facilitation of free movement not only within the EU but also internationally. In this blogpost, Raluca Nedelcu and Lucky Belder argue that governments worldwide have adopted measures without concern for their long-term impact on the global economy and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Public health measures such as the EU Digital COVID Certificate should take their impact on international relations into account and, in particular, measures adopted by governments should not create discrepancies and unfair advantages at an international level.

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Genome editing in plants can deliver beneficial crop properties such as drought and pest resistance, but the resulting products are also feared by some to lead to health and biodiversity risks in the long term. On 29^th April 2021, the EU Commission published its long-awaited report on new genome editing techniques, hinting at deregulation of products resulting from genome editing amidst accusations of aggressive biotech industry lobbying. In this blogpost, Pauline Phoa discusses the legal background to the Commission’s report, as well as some concerns about the way forward.

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In juni 2020 heeft de Europese Commissie een witboek gepubliceerd over het tot stand brengen van een gelijk speelveld wat betreft buitenlandse subsidies. Een belangrijk onderdeel van het witboek is hoe dit spanningsveld uitwerkt in het kader van procedures voor het plaatsen van overheidsopdrachten. De Commissie constateert dat sprake is van een lacune in de regelgeving, om vervolgens een voorstel te doen voor een nieuwe wettelijke uitsluitingsgrond in aanbestedingsprocedures. In deze blogpost zal Emma Wiggers onderzoeken met welke initiële kanttekeningen de Commissie rekening moet houden.

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Consumers increasingly want access to information regarding the origin of products. Buying local is en vogue, offering a sense of greater certainty as to the quality and safety of products, the hope of a lower carbon footprint and a way to support local communities. This trend, however legitimate, also provides an opportunity for States to promote their domestic production – a temptation which is only getting stronger with the current economic crisis and the need to rescue national economies. In this context, origin-labelling can be used as a tool to guide consumers towards local purchases. In this post, Vincent Delhomme shows how EU law currently prevents Member States from imposing wide ranging origin-labelling requirements on products and argues, should any reform take place, for preserving the overall spirit of this legal framework.

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In the ninth post in RENFORCE Blog’s special series on enforcement, Gavin Robinson argues that the extreme volatility of electronic data calls for EU law to promote not only efficient and secure access thereto for criminal investigators, but also robust standards of digital forensics. Currently, it is national laws and criminal justice systems which achieve varying levels of forensic soundness for digital evidence. Drawing on a comparative, multidisciplinary research project and sharing insight from legal practice in Luxembourg, the post advocates a stronger emphasis on the development of common European rules on digital forensics – potentially within dedicated EU legislation on the admissibility of evidence.

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Statistics clearly show that not a single country in the European Union has managed to establish equal pay for women and men. In this blogpost, the eighth in RENFORCE Blog’s special series on the enforcement of EU law, Linda Senden and Rian Hesdahl argue that a major reason for this lack of progress is a strong reliance on individual-rights-based enforcement, before examining whether the new directive proposed by the European Commission is likely to significantly boost the effective enforcement of the equal pay principle.

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The EU is an important market for illegal environmental trades – such as timber, wildlife, fish, waste, minerals and metals – which are causing serious harms to the environment worldwide. In this blogpost, the seventh in RENFORCE Blog’s special series on the enforcement of EU law, Daan van Uhm argues that ecocentric values should be embedded in both EU legislation and in EU law enforcement cultures.

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In this post, part of a special RENFORCE Blog series on the enforcement of EU law, Salvatore Nicolosi acknowledges the potential of EU migration agencies to support Member States in enforcing EU rules, but explains how an enhanced form of EU law enforcement through agencies should not be detrimental to the legal guarantees of migrants.

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