Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are openly defying efforts to reset trade relations as a revised trade deal with Kyiv kicks in.  The bans, covering Ukrainian grain and other farm products, breach EU single market rules that prohibit national trade barriers.

The European Commission’s 2023 plan to ease the suffering of farm animals on the move started out as the ultimate feel-good proposal. Now, its ambitions are stuck. But Denmark is trying to revive the efforts.

A Slovak liberal quietly steered one of the last surviving environmental files to the finish line.

Poland’s lower house has just voted to phase out fur farming by 2033, with compensation for those who quit early. Rabbits remain exempt. The bill now goes to the Senate and President Nawrocki for final approval.

Under Russian drones, Ukrainians wonder if Europe still cares www.politico.eu/article/russ... by @thisisbartosz.bsky.social

Ukrainians are feeling a deep unease that the rest of Europe is tired, turning its attention away from the war and viewing it as something that should simply end, no matter the cost.

The European Parliament voted today to ban plant-based and lab-grown products from having meat-related names such as “burger,” “sausage” or “steak” on their labels.

When your ban on veggie burger names and lab-grown steaks passes in the European Parliament — French MEP Céline Imart.

Even if the world stopped burning coal, oil and gas tomorrow, what we eat would still be enough to heat the climate beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, warns the EAT-Lancet Commission.

The European Commission has proposed delaying the EU's flagship anti-deforestation law for the second year in a row as it continues its war on red tape.

More than a decade ago, as the EU’s first climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard helped turn carbon policy into a pillar of Brussels’ power and a point of pride for the bloc. But now, she worries the tide is turning — with dire ramifications.

Poland today halted all further payments under an EU-funded program after a transparency push exposed grants for yachts, vodka bars and a business registered at the same address as a sex club.

Swingers' clubs and vodka bars: Donald Tusk’s coalition is scrambling after an ill-judged transparency drive revealed that some of Poland’s EU Covid recovery cash went to eyebrow-raising projects.

This week, the European Commission unveiled its sweeping new seven-year budget proposal. On the new episode of EU Confidential, @swheatonjourno.bsky.social, @gregsorgi.bsky.social + @thisisbartosz.bsky.social dig into the fights already heating up over where the money goes. 🎧 Listen now 👇

The post-2027 CAP regulation is finally out. Get the doc and the annex before the Commission takes them down again because the documents still contain comments like "insert reference." ec.europa.eu/transparency...

The European Commission says it’s safeguarding farmers in its proposed new budget. Farmers say Brussels is stabbing them in the back.

Ursula von der Leyen has had a tricky start to her second term as European Commission president. The next two years of negotiations over the long-term budget were never going to be easy. The way it has started has made a tough job even tougher.

Ursula von der Leyen is preparing to overhaul the bloc’s subsidy system to keep the farm budget limping along, but shifts political fights back onto national governments, a leaked policy blueprint obtained by POLITICO indicates.

[LEAK] While all eyes are on the budget allocated to farm subsidies, the @ec.europa.eu looks set to sneakily insert restrictions on the use of “meaty” names for plant-based foods in the proposal for a CMO regulation to be unveiled on Wednesday..

How big of a deal is the CAP really? In the run up to next week's budget announcement, we thought it was time to take a step back and look at how the money was divvied up last time. Here is how the EU spends almost a third of its budget on agriculture 👇 www.politico.eu/article/eu-b...

The EU is weighing a politically explosive merger of its farm and cohesion funds into broader national investment plans, as part of a sweeping effort to simplify how the bloc spends its shared money and responds more nimbly to crises, according to a draft seen by POLITICO.

🚨 The European Commission and Ukraine have agreed to revise their existing free trade agreement, giving Kyiv improved market access compared to pre-war terms, while stopping short of the complete liberalization provided during the conflict. pro.politico.eu/news/201113

European farmers have a blunt message for Brussels: Keep the cash flowing, or the tractors will hit the streets again.

A top Ukrainian MP has warned that imminent withdrawal of wartime trade waivers could threaten Ukraine’s economic footing and feed Russian propaganda. www.politico.eu/article/reim...

NEW: The European Commission is preparing to reintroduce pre-war tariff quotas for some Ukrainian farm products sold into the EU market as of June 6, after the bloc’s wartime tariff waivers expire. That's according to documents seen by POLITICO. www.politico.eu/article/brus...

The Netherlands is rolling back its nitrogen reduction targets, setting the stage for a showdown with its own judges and Brussels.

Europe’s favorite bottle of red or white may come with an unwanted ingredient: toxic chemicals that don’t break down naturally, according to a new study.

Hungary confirmed a fifth outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, escalating concerns over the spread of the highly contagious livestock virus.

Ukraine is looking to wrap a narrow, pragmatic trade deal with the EU before wartime tariff waivers expire in June — and avoid turning a technical fix into a political firestorm.

Dutch neurologist Bas Bloem has become one of the most outspoken voices on the environmental drivers of Parkinson’s — and what he sees as a growing failure to confront their long-term impact on the human brain. 🔗 ow.ly/Nahq50VzLnV

Donald Trump may not drink beer, but this week he messed up a lot of people’s pints. Beer was quietly added Wednesday to a list of aluminum-linked products now subject to a 25 percent US import duty.

The European Union allows surgical castration of piglets without anesthesia. Just don’t try showing a photo of it in the European Parliament.

The UN World Food Programme is scrambling to plug a multi-billion-dollar funding gap after the US froze foreign aid and slashed humanitarian budgets. The situation has forced the agency to make previously “unthinkable choices.” 👉 ow.ly/IbzT50Vm3WQ

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is raising the alarm over a rapidly escalating bird flu crisis as the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus spreads from poultry to mammals, fueling concerns over food security and a potential human spillover.

Ukraine is sending a clear message to the EU: If you won’t sort out our trade relationship, there will be consequences.

Trump froze hundreds of millions in annual US funding to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The cuts are expected to deepen food insecurity in multiple regions, aid experts have warned. 👉 www.politico.eu/article/un-f...

The European Commission wants to ensure that when someone is told to leave the EU, they actually leave. That’s the blunt message behind a major migration crackdown unveiled today.

As European leaders prepare for a high-stakes summit in London, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico are openly challenging the EU’s united front on Ukraine, pushing positions that echo the Kremlin’s stance.

The European Commission is preparing to overhaul the EU’s deportation system in a bid to accelerate the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminal migrants, EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in London on Saturday, continuing a diplomatic damage-control effort after his tense exchange with US President Donald Trump in Washington yesterday.

Ukraine’s EU trade future is on shaky ground: • Tariff breaks expire in June • Farm groups in Europe push for more restrictions • Trump’s pivot makes EU support more crucial than ever My latest on why Kyiv is worried and Brussels is hesitating: www.politico.eu/article/ukra...

At risk of losing its privileged access to the EU market this June, Ukraine is scrambling to get an extension of tariff suspensions that have helped keep its economy afloat in wartime. But as Kyiv presses for clarity, European leaders are stalling.

The European Commission published its long-term “vision” for the EU’s agriculture and food policy today. Here are the five key takeaways from the bloc’s master plan 👇

After three years of war, the public mood in Poland is souring over economic sacrifices made for Ukraine and sympathy for the farmers is playing a significant role in that shift.

The European Commission is preparing to scrap a crucial financial safeguard in the EU’s €386 billion Common Agricultural Policy — a move billed as “simplification” that critics say will weaken oversight on how billions in farm subsidies are spent.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is facing a crisis after the United States halted dozens of aid grants despite an emergency waiver meant to keep food assistance flowing, threatening food deliveries to millions in crisis zones.

Europe’s multibillion-euro attempt to green its farming is turning into an exercise in creative accounting rather than genuine environmental progress, according to a new report by BirdLife Europe and NABU.

The EU Commission’s latest move to impose tariffs on Russian fertilizers was meant to be a triple win: 1. Choke a revenue stream for Moscow’s war machine. 2. Help struggling European manufacturers. 3. Avoid price hikes that could further enrage farmers. Instead, it’s looking like a triple miss.

Richard Takáč, Slovakia’s agriculture minister in Robert Fico’s populist government, has emerged as the face of a renewed Eastern bloc campaign to curb the power of supermarkets and multinational food giants in the European Union. 🔗 ow.ly/sV1U50UNyzp

A Dutch court today ruled that Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s government must ramp up efforts to cut nitrogen pollution in protected nature areas, handing Greenpeace Netherlands a significant legal win.