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News & Opinions

  • EU Screening Week at FleishmanHillard

    October 9, 2026

    Bringing the Commission’s screening ambition to life As part of the Safe Hearts Plan, the European Commission introduced the Know Your Numbers campaign, aiming to ensure every European knows their core heart health indicators by the age of 35 and makes routine health checks a lifelong habit thereafter. To kickstart efforts towards this goal, the Commission announced the first-ever EU Screening Week would be organised from 28 September to 4 October 2026. Alongside the mobilisation...

  • Packaging, plastics, and the unsettled food waste question

    September 28, 2026

    A punnet of strawberries has been redesigned at least three times over the past decade: once to be biodegradable, once to be recyclable, and now, potentially, banned outright if it weighs less than 1.5kg. That regulatory whiplash captures a tension running through the EU's plastics and packaging agenda that is easy to miss amid application dates and delegated acts: rules designed to cut packaging waste can work against the food waste those same packages exist...

  • The next crop is carbon: how farm revenue and climate policy are being rewritten

    September 21, 2026

    Several farmer protests over the past two years, in the streets of Brussels and across Europe, have delivered one message: the Green Deal's environmental ambition, and its conditionality-based system of subsidies, were outrunning what farmers' balance sheets could bear. That pushback has since forced a reality check on the EU agrifood policy drawing board about what farmers can actually afford to implement, and where financing comes from. The result is not a retreat from environmental...

  • Cardiovascular Agenda: Unpacking the EP’s CVD Report

    September 17, 2026

    Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability across Europe, claiming over 1.7 million lives in the EU each year. Beyond lives lost, the disease presents a significant economic and social burden driven by premature mortality, lost productivity and high healthcare costs, adding up to more than €282 billion annually.  Late last year, the European Commission published the Safe Hearts Plan to support Member State action on CVD, with a focus on...

  • Alternative ingredients: an alternative for European agriculture? 

    September 14, 2026

    Chocolate bars with no cocoa. Burgers grown in bioreactors. Wheat varieties edited to survive drought. None of this is science fiction, it is a snapshot of where European food production is heading, driven by a mix of necessity and opportunity. The question is no longer whether alternative ingredients will reshape agrifood, but whether Europe's regulation can keep pace with the inevitable transition.  A health case that keeps building  The nutrition debate has tended to fixate...

  • From Sustainability to Survival: Europe’s farms push EU agri-food policy into new territory

    September 7, 2026

    Europe’s agriculture is no longer a stranger to severe weather events. This year, cereal harvests arrived six weeks early, and COCERAL estimates the total harvest to be almost 25 million tons lower than last year. French maize crop ratings have fallen to their lowest in 13 years, and 83% of winter barley in France was harvested by 3 July. Crops and ecosystems have been devastated by wildfires in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece.  European...

  • From Missouri to Brussels: Reporting From the Heart of Europe

    July 9, 2026

    What happens when talented journalism students from the United States land in the heart of Europe? For over five years now, FleishmanHillard EU, along with other partners in Brussels, has opened its doors to journalism students from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The programme, in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism, sends eager students to study and intern at the heart of the EU. The goal is ambitious but simple: to build journalists and strategic...

  • The Geopolitics of Food: How Agrifood is Reshaping Trade Policy

    July 8, 2026

    From tractor blockades to demonstrations in the EU quarter, the message from European farmers is clear: they feel squeezed by rising costs, stringent regulations, and what they see as an uneven playing field with global competitors. This comes as global agrifood trade shows clear signs of growing fragmentation and geopolitical tension. Since 2022, over 30 countries have imposed export restrictions on key food commodities. At peak moments, these measures have affected up to one-fifth of...

  • Beyond the headlines: three key questions raised by CADA

    June 17, 2026

    The Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) has finally landed after the publication date was postponed several times. The reaction from Brussels has been markedly different – an association representing US big tech described it as “progressive market shutdown” while an article in Euractiv described its provisions as “keen to keep Americans on side”. In reality, the proposal is more nuanced. Three themes are likely to shape the debate in the months ahead: The four...

  • What’s Next for Europe’s Chemicals Industry?

    June 16, 2026

    Unpacking key structural shifts and policy choices ahead   Europe’s chemical industry, long a cornerstone of the continent’s industrial base, has seen its global position significantly eroded over the past two decades. Data speaks clearly. Europe’s share of global chemical sales has more than halved, falling from 27% in 2004 to just 13% in 2025, while China’s has surged to 46%. At the same time, the sector is contracting at home: since 2022, around 160...

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