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The autumn 2025 meeting of the European Beer Consumers Union took place in Warsaw on 17-18 October. Reuben and I attended for Beoir.
The big news is that, following a disastrous financial loss at the Great British Beer Festival this year, CAMRA has chosen to leave EBCU. This has a big implication for the EBCU’s budget, since CAMRA as the largest member paid most towards it, and provided the secretarial services. An exit agreement was reached which will see CAMRA paying half fees for 2026 and in July switching from being a full member to an associate member, so the connection isn’t cut completely. The deferral gives EBCU time to figure out how it will manage things after CAMRA is gone.
The EBCU budget was already a controversial issue, and CAMRA’s news made it an even bigger talking point. The Executive proposed a budget that would see a €6800 loss in 2026. Several delegates were not happy about this, so it was made a condition of passing it that a revised and (hopefully) more sustainable budget would be presented at the 2026 spring meeting. Whether two meetings a year is sustainable is one of the things to be considered. EBCU does have cash reserves, and it could run on those for a few years, but everyone wants it to be on a steady financial footing. None of the members want to pay any extra for it, though.
The other big topic was the Brewed Where? campaign, which I’ve posted about here. That will be developed over the coming months, with the intention of launching for World Consumers Day in March.
The next meeting is scheduled for 9-11 of April, to include an extra seminar on the Thursday, and will take place in Rome.
You can see the provisional budget here.
Where it says the autumn meeting is online only, I’m pretty sure that’s a typo. There are travel expenses, and nobody was in favour of an online-only meeting next year. There won’t be a Brussels reception either, but the planned seminar in Rome will likely have similar expenses.Not great at all. Guess we can wait and see what the spring budget brings. Presuming there was no suggestion CAMRA would return as full member in a few years once they sort their own finances?
I would have no problem with that, and realistically I think the only way EBCU will survive is if the member organisations who want it to continue pay for it. No other members are willing to pay more, however.
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