In response to the recent and sudden surge of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) affecting ruminants across Europe this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a two-day regional workshop concluding today in Budapest, Hungary. The event brought together veterinary authorities and animal health experts from over a dozen countries to exchange experiences and strengthen regional coordination against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), and sheep and goat pox (SGP).

There is an urgent need to adopt advanced technologies to tackle the challenges posed by climate shocks and water scarcity in agriculture and increasing pressure on smallholder farmers and rural economies. This was the message emphasized by Viorel Gutu, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia of the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) during a crucial session of the Bloomberg HT Sustainable Agriculture and Food Summit, held on 12 June in Istanbul, Türkiye. The session, ‘The present and future of agriculture,’ dissected the complex objective of building a sustainable future for the agricultural sector in Europe and Central Asia, with particular attention on water security, innovation and digital transformation, as well as smallholder farmers engagement.

From 10 to 13 June 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) held a comprehensive four-day online webinar for national institutions and relevant partners to enhance their technical knowledge and improve national capacities related to key Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, with a strong focus on methodology, data collection and national implementation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has trained European experts in advanced remote sensing methodologies that will help generate consistent, comparable and high-quality data on the region’s forests. At a week-long training event hosted by the French National Institute for Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) in Saint-Mandé in May, 12 experts from France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine learned to use Collect Earth Online (CEO) – an open-source software for satellite image interpretation – to collect data for assessing forest extent, trends and drivers of change from 2000 to 2024 based on a statistical sample. 

Water security is key for ensuring food security and countries can rely on the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to improve water management at the farm, national, and transboundary levels, as well as to facilitate to access innovative financing. This was the central message of Viorel Gutu, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia at the 2025 Hamburg Sustainability Conference. Gutu spoke at the panel discussion ‘Water, Food, Future: Navigating the global water crisis for food security’ on 2 June.

On 8 May 2025, the Parliament of Montenegro hosted the 18th session of the “Women’s Parliament,” under the theme “Voices of Women from Rural Montenegro.” The session aimed to amplify the voices of rural women, recognize their contributions and advocate for their stronger representation in public life. It culminated in the adoption of the Declaration of the First Rural Women’s Parliament, a significant step toward inclusive policymaking and the recognition of rural women as key contributors to sustainable development.

To identify and discuss obstacles and opportunities of rural youth in Europe and Central Asia, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) convened the second Regional Rural Youth Forum in Budapest, Hungary. Starting today, youth representatives, decision makers, young farmers, civil society, and others from 22 countries of the region will hear examples of successful support to rural youth, as well as look at the issues they are facing and solutions. In a region, where the trend in rural areas of the countries is to an ageing population, the forum is also an opportunity to raise awareness on the importance of generational sustainability of family farming.

A five-year regional initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on better ruminant biosecurity has concluded last week with a workshop in Barcelona, Spain. The project has been supporting nine countries around the Black Sea Basin to improve disease prevention and control in ruminant livestock systems. The workshop, hosted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the key research partner in the project, brought together veterinary authorities and academic partners from the participating countries. 

Amidst the citrus trees, cows crossing the streets and hazelnut orchards, a typical sight in the Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti region, Marina Kacharava, 69, is pursuing her passion of making high-value European cheeses in her small farm next to her home in the town of Abasha. In the region, she is one of the most successful students of a Farmer Field School (FFS) run by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

The population of great cormorants in Europe has increased in recent decades from some 50 000 birds in the 1970s to an estimated population of more than 2 million today. The success of this bird conservation by the European Union Birds Directive of EU Member States has had unintended consequences on the ecological balance of European waterways and on fisheries and aquaculture operations.