The autumn 2024 plenary meeting of EBCU took place last month in Norwich, and next to Crisp Malting in rural Norfolk. Reuben and I attended for Beoir.

The organisation’s main concern at the moment is its finances. The big organisations which bankroll it (UK, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands) have declining memberships and have financial problems of their own. CAMRA is probably the healthiest, but it pays EBCU mostly by providing a secretary rather than cash. So there was a bit of brainstorming around money-making ideas but no real conclusions.

There’s also a drive at the moment to expand EBCU membership to all sorts of specialised and informal beer organisations, as long as they have a broad goal of beer appreciation. At the meeting, the Norwegian homebrewers’ organisation and the Dutch Beer Geeks Facebook group became associate and corresponding members of EBCU, respectively. Home brewing has become a particular area of interest for EBCU and a working group has been set up to become more involved in it: to draw in more homebrew organisations and maybe organise a pan-European competition. A need is also seen for lobbying to be done for some countries where homebrew law is restrictive.

The annual Brussels reception is being re-jigged, partially for financial reasons and partly to try and make it more effective as a lobbying tool. It’s being moved from September to April, and will coincide with the usual Spring meeting. That will be Brussels for 2025, and the Italian farmers’ organisation Cia-Agricoltori Italiani has agreed to host at their Brussels office.

Other issues that the working groups are looking at are the forthcoming EU Directive on packaging, mergers and acquisitions and the effect it has on consumer choice, the WHO’s renewed anti-alcohol focus, and how to counter it by presenting beer as beneficial to overall well-being.

The next meeting will be in Brussels, as mentioned, on 24-26 April.