Agri ministers call the Commission to speed up work on animal transport
European Union agriculture ministers backed on Tuesday (26 March) the European Commission’s initiatives on animal welfare, calling for tougher standards on transport, labelling, and slaughter in the next political mandate.
In 2020, the bloc’s executive had promised proposals for a comprehensive overhaul of animal welfare legislation as part of the Farm to Farm strategy and at the end of 2023, it tabled stricter rules on animal transport and an proposal on pets.
Agriculture ministers backed on Tuesday the European Commission’s initiatives, calling for tougher standards on transport, labelling, and slaughter in the next political mandate.
The new Commission, expected to carry on the work on the topic, “cannot scale down the ambitions of the current Commission”, warned German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir at the ministers’ meeting.
“We encourage the Commission to implement the reforms announced and to tackle the review more quickly”, added Swedish Minister Peter Kullgren.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council put the subject on the agenda of the agriculture and fisheries ministers this week, following the conference “Call to Care for Animal Welfare”, held on 29 January.
But, “For the time being, the revision of European legislation is not going according to plan”, warned the Belgian Presidency in the margins of the conference, criticism repeated by MEPs in a debate in Strasbourg on 14 March.
This was followed on 18 March by the promoters of the European Citizen’s Initiative “End the Cage Age” taking legal action against the Commission over its alleged failure to deliver proposals on phasing out the use of cages in farming.
Commission tables a fraction of promised animal welfare package
The European Commission has made proposals for stricter rules on animal transport and pets, but campaigners have lambasted a number of loopholes, while large parts of the originally envisaged animal welfare overhaul have been left to the next mandate.
The transport rules
The ministers endorsed the Commission initiatives, but while they felt that discussions on the welfare of domestic animals were already well advanced, they asked the executive to speed up work on transport, a key element in the revision of the legislation.
“We must do everything we can together to improve animal transport”, insisted Irish minister Charlie McConalogue in unison with his colleagues.
“Discussions on transport should resume in July at the latest,” said Özdemir.
The ministers, including Danish minister Jacob Jensen and Austrian minister Norbert Totschnig, also called for new standards related to the slaughter, breeding, and labelling of animal products that the Commission had planned to incorporate into the new legislation.
Özdemir also noted citizens’ consultations on livestock farming, such as ‘End the Cage Age’, which has attracted over a million signatures, and fur production.
The ministers warned of the urgent need to harmonise the rules in this area, with Dutch minister Piet Adema noting that his country had specific regulations for slaughter and livestock.
“We need fair competition in the EU”, he insisted.
“We will be vigilant to ensure that relevant mirror measures are included so that the same rules apply to European products as to those imported from third countries”, added Cyril Piquemal, France’s deputy permanent representative to the European Union.
Work on animal welfare “will continue”, ensured the Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides addressing the ministers, also “as part of the strategic dialogue” on the future of EU food systems, launched by the European Commission at the end of January.
Commission says new rules on animal welfare postponed in name of strategic dialogue
After tabling just a small part of the promised overhaul of legislation on animal welfare, the Commission told the European Parliament plenary on Thursday (14 March) that a revision must rely on a strategic dialogue with stakeholders.
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