Health department DG SANTE could suffer a remarkable power loss to its farm-focused rival DG AGRI, according to the latest draft of a reshuffle seen by Euronews.
The European Commission’s powerful health department, DG SANTE, is expected to lose major powers over food safety, according to a draft seen by Euronews.
With a fresh Commission term set to start in November, the EU executive is looking at how to distribute policy priorities across its many constituent directorates-general.
If the draft seen by Euronews is confirmed, DG SANTE will hand over its powers on pesticide approval, animal welfare, animal and plant health, plant varieties, and new genomic techniques to the Commission’s farming department, DG AGRI.
SANTE would lose other food safety issues to DG JUST, which handles justice and consumer policy.
DG AGRI is currently responsible for the bloc’s massive farm subsidies programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which amounts to a third of the EU budget.
A strengthened AGRI could even become a fully-fledged food department, looking at food systems as a whole rather than just production – though SANTE would likely continue to shape, if not coordinate, policies in these sectors.
Alongside more traditional tasks related to food security, the Commission’s agriculture office would also take the lead on policies currently managed by other services related to the agri-food industry, agricultural trade, and food waste.
DG SANTE would then focus solely on public health, taking a prominent role on global health issues such as the World Health Organisation’s pandemic accord, and the roll-out of new legislation on health data.
The availability of drugs and medical devices to Europeans has also come to the fore in the wake of Covid-19, and SANTE is likely to take a role here as the EU seeks to build up its strategic autonomy.
The reinforced DG AGRI may presage the creation of a senior official responsible for the food system – a portfolio that could prove enticing for Italy, which, like other Member States, needs to appoint a Commissioner to serve in the next five-year mandate.
“We want to have a Vice-President of the European Commission with a strong portfolio for a good European policy favouring industry and agriculture”, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told French TV channel LCI last week.
A Commission vice-presidency with a portfolio linked to one of Italy’s national interests may appease Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after her exclusion from the EU top jobs discussion.
Meloni abstained in the European Council on the vote to reappoint Ursula von der Leyen as Commission chief, though left the door open for her 24 MEPs to support a European Parliament confirmation vote.
The European Commission did not confirm when a final decision on the reshuffle will take place.