Brussels in Brief Newsletter

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22 April 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of Brussels in Brief. The BAB team is here, we are in Brussels and we want to work on behalf of you and your members. You can find out more on what is happening in Europe at our website - BAB (britishagriculturebureau.co.uk).

Copa Cogeca April Praesidium

This week, Officeholders from the 4 UK Farming Unions (NFU, NFUS, UFU and NFU Cymru) will be in Brussels for the Copa Cogeca Praesidium. Alongside meeting with European Farming Union Presidents, the team will meet with the Permanent Representation of Denmark to the European Union, who take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in July, to discuss animal welfare and NGTs, and Bernard van Goethem, Director in DG SANTE to discuss topics including plant and animal health, and Lindsay Appleby, UK Ambassador to the EU.

Foot & Mouth Disease

On Thursday 17 April, Hungary reported its 5th case of FMD. According to press, the farm has 600 cows. Whilst the farm is in the same county as the other infected farms (Győr-Moson-Sopron), it is in the town of Rábapordány, which is >30 km from the other infected premises:

32km from Darnezseli

34km from Kisbajcs

40km from Level

44km from Dunakiliti

The number of infected premises in Slovakia remains at 6, with the last report on 4 April. More info here: https://www.britishagriculturebureau.co.uk/updates-and-information/foot-and-mouth-disease-in-europe-what-do-we-know-so-far/

EU measures against US

USA and Europe shopping bags_12996

The European Union has paused its countermeasures on new US trade tariffs to allow time and space for EU-US negotiations. The decision – which puts on hold for up to 90 days the EU's planned countermeasures against US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium imports - was made in response to the US delaying by 90 days its so-called reciprocal tariffs. In total, the suspended EU countermeasures cover €21 billion worth of US exports.

To give effect to these decisions, the Commission adopted two legal acts on 14 April which, respectively, impose and suspend its countermeasures:

The first act imposes the EU countermeasures.

The second act suspends all such measures until 14 July 2025.

Council and Parliament reach agreement on EU Soil Monitoring & Resilience Law

Seedling on trowel_13241

Council (Member States) and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional deal on a soil monitoring directive establishing a framework for soil monitoring to improve resilience and manage the risks of contaminated sites. The directive will also set out land-take mitigation principles with a focus on soil sealing and soil removal. The new law will establish a comprehensive and harmonised, yet flexible, soil health monitoring framework with criteria for healthy soil, but avoids new obligations for farmers. The provisional agreement maintains the aspirational, non-binding goal to achieve healthy soils by 2050. The agreement still needs to be confirmed by both institutions.

European Commission and Poland agree compromise plan to address avian flu

Last week, the European Commission and the Polish authorities agreed a package of measures to be implemented in Poland to address the ongoing issues with avian flu, following weeks of negotiation. The Commission raised concerns on the management of avian flu by the Polish authorities, outlining that the measures taken were insufficient and threatened the epizootic safety of the EU. Poland has reported 79 outbreaks in kept poultry, and 49 in wild birds. The Commission planned to launch the procedure under Article 259 of Regulation (EU) 2016/429 – i.e. the adoption of exceptional measures for the whole of the country. However, following pushback and negotiation with the Polish authorities, a compromise plan has been developed requiring immediate action. This includes:

Extension of the time between poultry placements to 14 days combined with additional official disinfection control

Increase the threatened area by an additional 5 km if an outbreak is confirmed.

Introduction of weekly monitoring in restricted areas

These measures have been introduced in three clusters (where there have been the highest number of outbreaks), rather than the entire country as proposed by the Commission. The Commission will evaluate these measures this week.

Dutch warned not to eat non-commercial eggs over PFAS concerns

cracked egg 14_80838

Advice has been issued by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands warning the public against eating eggs from non-commercial flocks due to the risk of contamination with PFAS. The advice is that eggs from backyard flocks contain an elevated risk of PFAS that can be harmful to human health. The advice is based on research from 60 different locations in the Netherlands but does confirm that commercial eggs from a store or from the market can continue to be eaten as “they contain much less PFAS”. Such eggs can be identified as they “are usually wrapped and should always be encoded with a stamp on the shell of the egg. Commercial eggs fall under the supervision of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).”

Council reaches agreement on UTPs cross-border enforcement

Member states' representatives in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) approved the Council’s negotiating mandate on amending the UTP Directive. The legislation was published alongside the Commission’s proposal to amend the CMO Regulation in December and aims to improve cross-border enforcement of UTPs by introducing a mutual assistance mechanism, which would enable national enforcement authorities to ask for and exchange information, and to request another enforcement authority to take measures on their behalf. The Council agrees with the Commission proposal, but the General Approach introduces rules on covering costs incurred for mutual assistance and clarifies the rules under which member states can refuse to comply with a request for information from the national authority. The Council would also like to see rules strengthened on data protection, including that data protection is ensured in cross-border enforcement. The Council’s position will form the basis of the trilogue negotiation with the European Parliament.

Arla/DMK merger

Arla flag_27618

Last week, Arla and DMK, Germany’s largest dairy coop, announced their intention to merge. If this goes ahead, the cooperative would have over 12,000 members. Arla has around €14 billion in revenue, with DMK around €5 billion. If the takeover goes ahead, the HQ and the supervisory board of the enlarged coop will be in Denmark, and the company will trade as Arla. The takeover requires approval by the representative assemblies of both cooperatives in June, and the anti-trust authorities must approve it.

EU agri-food imports and exports reached record levels in 2024

EU agri-food imports and exports reached record levels in 2024 EU agri-food exports reached a record level of EUR 235.4 billion in 2024, an increase of 3% compared to the peak in 2022 and 2023 (+ EUR 6.6 billion). The UK and the US are the top destinations of EU exports, while exports to China and Russia decreased. The EU kept exporting a diversified basket of products, topped by exports of cereal preparations, dairy products and wine. The value of olives and olive oil, and cocoa products increased the most, due to strong price increases, while exports of cereals declined due to reduced prices and volumes. EU agri-food imports also reached a record level of EUR 171.8 billion in 2024, an increase of 8% compared to 2023 (+ EUR 12.4 billion), slightly topping the record reached in 2022. This was primarily driven by a steep increase in the price of imports of cocoa, coffee, and fruits and nuts. These were also the most imported product categories by the EU, together with oilseeds and protein crops. The EU continued to import agri-food products from a diverse set of trade partners, with Brazil, the UK and Ukraine as the top sources. Imports increased from Côte d’Ivoire, Ukraine and Nigeria, while they decreased from Russia and Australia. Overall, the stronger growth in import value led to a decline in the EU agri-food trade balance that reached EUR 63.6 billion, EUR 5.8 billion (-8%) less than the record level in 2023.

Full report here: Monitoring EU Agri-Food Trade

For more information on anything you have read, please visit The BAB Webpage. Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy neither BAB nor the author can accept liability for errors and omissions.