Commodity Market Development in Europe – Outlook Proceedings of the October 2012 Workshop

This report contains a summary and the presentations of the expert workshop 'Commodity Market Development in Europe – Outlook', held in October 2012 in Brussels. The workshop was held in order to present and discuss the preliminary results of the DG AGRI outlook on EU agricultural market developments. The workshop gathered high-level policy makers, modelling and market experts and provided a forum to present and discuss recent and projected developments on the EU agricultural and commodity markets, to outline the reasons behind observed and prospected developments, and to draw conclusions on the short/medium term perspectives of European agricultural markets in the context of world market developments. Special focus was given on the discussion of the influence of different settings/assumptions (regarding e.g. drivers of demand and supply, macroeconomic uncertainties, etc.) on the projected market developments.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Commodity Market Development in Europe – Outlook - Proceedings of the October 2011 Workshop

This report contains a summary and the presentations of the expert workshop 'Commodity Market Development in Europe – Outlook', held in October 2011 in Brussels. The workshop was held in order to present and discuss the preliminary results of the European Commission's outlook on EU agricultural market developments. The workshop gathered high-level policy makers, modelling and market experts and provided a forum to present and discuss recent and projected developments on the EU agricultural and commodity markets, outline the reasons behind observed and prospected developments, and to draw conclusions on the short/medium term perspectives of European agricultural markets in the context of world market developments. Special focus was given on the discussion of the influence of different settings/assumptions (regarding e.g. drivers of demand and supply, macroeconomic uncertainties, etc.) on the projected market developments.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Harvest failures, temporary export restrictions and global food security: the example of limited grain exports from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (RUK) are major players on the international grain markets and their exports help to improve global grain availability and hence food security. However, during the last decade the availability of RUK grain exports was repeatedly diminished by harvest failures and further reduced by the introduction of export restrictions. By simulating a reoccurrence of the 2010 RUK harvest situation this paper assesses the impact of grain harvest failures and subsequent temporary export restrictions (bans, quotas, taxes) on national and international food security, specifically quantifying the effects on agricultural market prices and quantities. For the analysis AGLINK-COSIMO, a recursive-dynamic, partial equilibrium, supply-demand model, has been employed. Simulation results highlight the importance of RUK’s grain production for world markets and global food security, indicating substantial price increases due to limited grain exports from RUK. Moreover, scenario results illustrate that temporary RUK export restrictions can considerably aggravate the situation on world grain markets, with particularly adverse effects for grain net importing countries. At the same time results show that for a country like Ukraine, i.e. a country usually exporting large shares of its total grains production, the introduction of export restrictions could potentially result in decreases of domestic consumer prices to a level even below a situation with normal weather conditions. The results put international trade policy into focus and underline the necessity of greater cooperation on the part of exporting countries in order to avoid importing countries being denied necessary grain supplies.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Contribution to the economic impact assessment of policy options to regulate animal cloning for food production with an economic simulation model

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Contribution to the economic impact assessment of policy options to regulate animal cloning for food production with an economic simulation model

The EU is currently evaluating different policy options towards the use of cloning or products derived from cloned animals in the food chain. This study presents a first attempt to quantify the likely effects of different policy scenarios on international trade and EU domestic production. In the context of the Impact Asessment process the JRC was requested to simulate via a modelling study the economic impact of selected policy options. Based on a literature review and the specific constraints for this study, the choice was made to perform the analysis through the use of a computable general equilibrium model and focus on the dairy and beef sector . The different model scenarios are constructed based on combinations of the discussed policy options such as a ban or traceability and labelling requirements with the productivity increase associated with cloning. The results show that only the situation where trade with countries using the technique of cloning is suspended has an effect on competitiveness. This suspension could be due to express prohibitions or a de facto decision by exporters when traceability and labeling costs increase. Unde this scenario imports drop significantly which is followed by a slight increase in domestic production and prices, especially for beef and cattle.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Non-tariff measures affecting agro-food trade between the EU and Africa Summary of a workshop

This report contains the presentations and the summary of the IPTS workshop "Non Tariff Measures (NTMs) affecting agro-food trade between the EU and Africa" held in September 2010 in Seville. The workshop brought together experts from research, policy making and business in order to exchange knowledge and discuss about NTMs and the issues associated with them. The workshop first gave an overview of NTM classifications as well as the methods in the analysis of NTMs. With this background case studies were presented, focusing on NTMs from the perspective of African exporters of agro-food products.JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Prospects for Agricultural Markets and Income in the EU 2012-2022

The outlook presented herein consists of a set of market and sector income prospects elaborated on the basis of specific assumptions regarding macroeconomic conditions, the agricultural and trade policy environment, weather conditions and international market developments. As in previous years, these are not intended to constitute a forecast of what the future will hold, rather they describe what may happen under a specific set of assumptions and circumstances, which at the time of projections were judged plausible. Thus, they should be seen as an analytical tool for medium term market and policy issues, not as a forecasting tool for monitoring short term market developments. These projections and analyses have been carried out on the basis of economic models available in the European Commission (at the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development and in the Joint Research Centre – Institute for Perspective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS)). This report is based on the information available at the end of September 2012, except for macroeconomic assumptions, which are from November 2012. The changes in legislation proposed or adopted since that date have not been taken into account. Moreover the projections do not take account of any potential outcome of ongoing bilateral/regional/multilateral trade negotiations. The analysis covers the period between 2012 and 2022.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Communication, co-operation and social interactions:a report from the third 'Young Microbiologists Symposium on Microbe Signaling, Organization and Pathogenesis'

The third Young Microbiologists Symposium took place on the vibrant campus of the University of Dundee, Scotland, from the 2nd to 3rd of June 2014. The symposium attracted over 150 microbiologists from 17 different countries. The significant characteristic of this meeting was that it was specifically aimed at providing a forum for junior scientists to present their work. The meeting was supported by the Society for General Microbiology and the American Society for Microbiology, with further sponsorship from the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Federation of European Microbiological Societies, and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. In this report, we highlight some themes that emerged from the many exciting talks and poster presentations given by the young and talented microbiologists in the area of microbial gene expression, regulation, biogenesis, pathogenicity, and host interaction.</p

Documentation of the European Comission’s EU module of the Aglink-Cosimo modelling system

This report documents the EU module of Aglink-Cosimo model. Aglink-Cosimo is a recursive-dynamic, partial equilibrium, supply demand model of world agriculture developed by the OECD and FAO Secretariats. The model is used to simulate development of annual supply, demand and prices for the main agricultural commodities produced, consumed and traded worldwide. Aglink-Cosimo covers 44 individual countries and 12 regions, and 40 commodities clearing markets at the world level. At the EU level, the Aglink-Cosimo model is used to produce the "Prospects for Agricultural Markets and Income in the EU". This is a yearly exercise that provides a detailed overview of EU agricultural markets with a 10 year time horizon. It incorporates information from policy makers and market experts in the European Commission, stakeholders, researchers and modellers. The EU Outlook intends to provide a broad consensus about the evolution of European Agriculture in the medium-term. It serves as reference timeline for counterfactual policy analysis and market analysis done in numerous research sites in Europe. The report includes a detailed presentation and discussion of the structure and specific features of the model, along with the theoretical underpinnings. It also documents the process of calibration such as to obtain a medium-term baseline and different efforts towards the validation of results. Nonetheless, different applications in the area of uncertainty analysis and the use of partial stochastics are also included.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Contribution of the PhoP/Q regulon to survival and replication of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in macrophages

The ability of serovars of Salmonella enterica to cause systemic disease is dependent upon their survival and replication within macrophages. To do this, bacteria must withstand or surmount bacteriostatic and bactericidal responses by the host cell, including the delivery of hydrolytic enzymes from lysosomes to the phagosome. The bacterial two-component regulatory system PhoP/Q has been implicated in avoidance of phagolysosomal fusion by S. enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in murine macrophages. In this study, the involvement of PhoP/Q-activated genes in avoidance of phagolysosomal fusion was analysed: of all the S. Typhimurium mutant strains tested, only an mgtC mutant strain partially reproduced the phenotype of the phoP mutant strain. As this gene is required for bacterial growth in magnesium-depleted conditions in vitro, the contributions of PhoP/Q to intramacrophage replication and survival were reappraised. Although PhoP/Q was required for both replication and survival of S. Typhimurium within murine macrophages, subsequent analysis of the kinetics of phagolysosomal fusion, taking account of differences in the replication rates of wild-type and phoP mutant strains, provided no evidence for a PhoP/Q-dependent role in this process. PhoP/Q appeared to act subsequent to the process of phagolysosomal avoidance and to promote replication of those bacteria that had already escaped a phagolysosomal fate. Therefore, we conclude that the PhoP/Q regulon enables S. Typhimurium to adapt to intramacrophage stresses other than phagolysosomal fusion