The right side of the 🇪🇺 Parliament (+ some socialist, liberals) just voted to ban names like “burger” and “steak” for plant-based products 🌱❌ 👇🏼 @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/parliam...

🇪🇸’s Luis Planas says the CAP proposal could give 🇪🇺 countries too much financial wiggle room and undercut fair competition Full interview here👇🏼 @euractiv.com euractiv.com/interview/comm…

Sweden 🇸🇪 is (again) calling for more cormorant hunts, saying the birds eat over 300K tonnes of Europe's fish each year 🐟 www.euractiv.com/news/eu-mini...

“I don’t think the #WTO should be too euphoric about this” John Clarke told @euractiv.com 🎣After 2 decades in the making, the deal has come into force - but is this just the beginning? Read on to learn about the fate of illegal fishing hotspots, such as Argentina’s "Mile 201" 🚢

Read this empathic conversation @maria-simon.bsky.social held with the young folks heading out to sea in Spain -- a rarity for a dying profession. Unai Ruiz-Zeberio Almandoz chose the boat over 2nd division goalkeeping, while Alba Aguilera Olivencia (24) is 4th gen www.euractiv.com/news/swappin...

"Some will hysterically cry even treason. Some will say we’re surrendering sovereignty or freedoms, but that is nonsense" said 🇬🇧’s EU affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds

After his appointment, Rainer said that Germans were mature enough to decide what to put in their shopping baskets…. 🛒 … a few months later, govn’t advisors are handing him a report calling for a shift away from his cherished meat 🥩🍖🥓 What’s in it? 🗒️👇🏼

In 1929, Magritte painted “This is not as pipe” to argue that a label does not constitute the object 🎨 In 2025, Brussels is caught in a dilemma over representations and the defense of what is “real” 🌱🍣 🤔 Whether in art or at the supermarket, is a name ever just a name?

The #EU fishing lobby is accusing vegetarian companies of giving their no-fish products a disguise that’s a little too convincing via @maria-simon.bsky.social

📣 Stay in the loop on the next EU budget 💶 🎢 Our reporters are covering every twist and turn, LIVE, of what is set to be the most important budget in EU history. 🔖 Bookmark and keep this link open, as we report on von der Leyen's proposal, and initial reactions. www.euractiv.com/section/econ...

The COM proposal follows pressure from farm ministers and MEPs, but does not go as far as some were hoping… 🍽️ Among processed meats, only bacon 🥓 made it to the list seen by @euractiv.com 👀

Get ready for bans on using meat 🥩 names for veggie food 🍽️ - and new rules on cannabis cultivation 🌿 Details of the draft proposal 👇🏼

As with farm subsidies, the COM plans to integrate fisheries 🎣 into the new single fund. Still, it is ready to meet one of the industry’s long-standing demands: lifting key restrictions on EU funding ⛴️ - we got the draft 👀

🚨 Brussels will include the #CAP in a new single fund, keeping farmers’ income support ringfenced but scrapping the rural development pillar, according to a draft seen by @sofiamazzanaro.bsky.social and me ‼️ www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

The 🇳🇱 farmers party sees little hope of swaying the EU to retain its manure exemption 💩 - and has little time before October’s snap election🗳️

Amid Italy’s pushback on CBD 🇮🇹, farm MEPs in Brussels press for EU rules on hemp 🇪🇺 Their idea? 👇🏼 🌿 EU-wide THC limit of 0.5% 🪻 Endorsing the use of “the entire plant” - so also the flower, which some countries consider as a narcotic… ⚠️

DK 🇩🇰will take the lead in negotiations at the Council, all while facing disputes with EU neighbours (UK🇬🇧, Norway🇳🇴...) and navigating sustainability challenges at home. 👉To tax or not to tax, that is the question 🤔 👉 Never ending fight over bottom trawling 🐟

The EU Green Deal is under fire. As Brussels moves to roll back key green laws, conservative ministers from 9 German states (Länder) now want the Nature Restoration Law scrapped too. The Green Deal is increasingly turning into a red flag.

“In Ukraine, you have agri holdings that have 600K ha. This is 4 times the entire production of the member state where I come from!” (🇱🇺) said @christophehansen.bsky.social

Sandeel row latest via @maria-simon.bsky.social

One month on from the EU-UK reset, attention turns to which products get carve outs from ‘dynamic alignment’ under the SPS deal Two candidates: Foie gras (Britain wants to ban it on animal health grounds) and smoky flavouring (EU to ban it on human health grounds) via @maria-simon.bsky.social

EU farm lobbies put consensus on agriculture under strain 

Member states call for exemption of exported wines from labelling rules

A coalition of EU countries (including food heavyweights 🇫🇷,🇪🇸, 🇮🇹) will renew their push to ban the use of “traditional” meat names for plant-based products 🌱👇🏼

Politicians always find a way to claim victory after defeat... In case you missed it, my first The Brief went out yesterday 👇

Russia's war-hungry President Vladimir Putin has a potato-shaped problem that not even close ally Belarus can help him out with anymore. www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

The European Commission has confirmed that poultry meat from Brazil is no longer allowed into the EU following the country’s first outbreak of bird flu on a commercial farm, but Brussels doesn't rule out easing countrywide restrictions at a later stage. 👇

🚨 Scoop by our EUDR expert @sofiamazzanaro.bsky.social

Top scoop by Euractiv's agriculture team www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

We've seen a draft of the simplification package (agri omnibus) that will be unveiled next week. Wondering what's to come? Take a look 👇 www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

🚨Breaking news from @sofiamazzanaro.bsky.social & @maria-simon.bsky.social on the simplification package for agriculture www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

EUROPEAN FISH RUINING RESET LATEST🚨 UK found (partially) in breach of TCA over sandeel fishing ban. UK says error is "procedural", won't immediately reverse ban. This is precisely how TCA arbitration should work... but brace for mild bickering with Brussels, perhaps? ✍️ @maria-simon.bsky.social

Talks with #China's Xi Jinping led to a tasty deal allowing #Spain to export more pork by-products 🐷 (& cherries🍒) to the Asian giant 🇨🇳w/@sofiamazzanaro

Spain secured expanded access to China’s pigmeat market- even as EU pork exports remain under Beijing’s anti-dumping probe. France managed to delay definitive tariffs on cognac. Signs of a thaw in agri trade tensions with China? Maybe. PS: Best agri headline of the day, by @maria-simon.bsky.social 🐖

US asking Europe for eggs… again? 😅 Council discusses next week at technical level a “bilateral US enquiry” to EU member states on egg exports. The very same administration threatening to impose 200% tariffs on EU wine and spirits next week…

UK government vows to ‘push hard’ in #fisheries negotiations with EU

French food safety agency advises a ‘tofu-ban’ in mass catering

#Fisheries ‘high in the agenda’ in talks with #UK and #Norway, says Commissioner

Germany’s most likely future farm minister drops candidacy

Polish Presidency proposes to end informal #seedexchanges between #farmers

Today, the EU is set to unveil its Preparedness Union Strategy, which is expected to address food security, including the issue of agricultural stocks to be used in emergencies. www.euractiv.com/section/agri...

Foot-and-mouth disease detected in Slovakia: The disease reappeared in Europe in January.

Beyond #pesticides: the silent spread of #PFAS in agriculture: In #Belgium, "#foreverchemicals" are contaminating soil, water, and even organic farms.

The European Union will delay imposing tariffs on US products - including bourbon whiskey and motorcycles - until mid-April to continue negotiations and avoid a trade war scenario, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said on Thursday.

After 22 years, EU’s Nordic neighbours are ready to break spat over GMOs rules: While both Norway and Iceland have both resisted Brussels’ regulation on GMOs, they have done so for different reasons.

The delay in adopting GMO rules is “the oldest and most extreme example” of the backlog of EU laws that have not been incorporated into the EEA (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), writes my colleague Maria Simon www.euractiv.com/section/agri...