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At an informal meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers, Belgian Minister of Agriculture Denis Ducarme reported on the presence of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Belgium. According to Ducarme, the Belgian authorities are continuing in the slaughter of wild boars as planned, but it may take up to 2 years to eradicate ASF in Belgium. The disease appeared in the south of Belgium near the border of Luxembourg in September 2018, but it did not affect commercial farms with pigs. Denis Ducarme also mentioned the occurrence of ASF in China, which previously banned the import of pork from Belgium due to ASF.
African swine fever continues to spread in Poland; since the beginning of 2019, the fourth outbreak of ASF (03/06/2019) has been confirmed in PL in one commercial farm and one boar. The third outbreak of ASF was found in a commercial farm on 31/05/2019 in the south of the country where more than 8,000 pigs were isolated and more than 1,800 piglets were killed.

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By 31/05/2019, more than one million of EU citizens have signed the European initiative "The End the Cage Age" to support abandoning the usage of livestock cages. The petition was launched in September 2018 by Compassion in World Farming in collaboration with Eurogroup for Animals, the initiative received support from more than 170 other animal welfare and environmental organizations. By September 2019, the organization expects at least 1,3 million signatures. A representative of the Eurogroup for Animals, Elena Nalon, said that the final report will be sent to the European Commission by the organizers of the initiative, requesting abandonment of all livestock cages of all agricultural animals in the EU. The Commission will accordingly within three months from receiving the report organize a meeting with the initiative organizers to discuss its content, the initiative will be allowed to present itself at a public hearing in the European Parliament, and then the Commission will issue a statement indicating whether and what action it will take in response to the initiative. This statement of the Commission will be available in all EU languages. The Commission is not obliged to prepare a legal act on the basis of a citizens' initiative, but if a legal act is decided, the Commission’s proposal will be discussed in the European Parliament and the Council of the EU and subsequently, it might become EU legislation.

More information is available here and here.

Spirits Europe, organisation representing spirits producers in the EU, has concluded a non-binding agreement on the indication of calories and ingredients on spirits labels with Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis. Over the next six months, according to the agreement, the number of calories should start to be indicated on the spirit labels, moreover, consumers will be able to find a list of ingredients on the Internet via a bar or QR code. Calories will be given for both 100 ml and one portion. Although the memorandum is not binding, Spirits Europe believes that the agreement will encourage producers to implement these measures. By 2020, 25% of spirits sold could be labelled in this way, 50% by 2021, and 66% by the end of 2022. According to Vytenis Andriukaitis, wine producers are likely to be forced to adapt to the new labelling as well due to market pressure.

On 06/06/2019, the European Commission sent a reasoned opinion on infringements of EU regulations to representatives of Hungary and Poland. According to the Commission, Poland should bring into line with EU rules its national procedures for exemptions for imported alcohol used to manufacture medicinal products. Currently, Poland does not allow importers to benefit from compulsory excise duty exemption. Poland now has two months to react. According to the Commission, Hungary has not aligned its tax rates on cigarettes with the minimum EU threshold (60% of the valid weighted average retail price of cigarettes). Hungarian excise duty is below the threshold in the long term, leading to distortions of competition with other Member States. Hungary now has 2 months to react.

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Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan confirmed at the informal meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers in Bucharest that Mercosur countries have made substantial concessions in their negotiations with the EU. Further high-level political negotiations could take place in the week of 24/06/2019 in Brussels. According to Hogan, a final agreement could be reached before the G20 Summit in Osaka on 28-29/06/2019. Last month, negotiations made significant progress on EU priorities, such as car tariffs and the rules of indicating the country of origin. The EC now foresees tariff reductions of up to 28% for dairy products and 35% for champagne.