Document type: Written answer from the European Commission
Authors: Question: Emmanouil Fragkos. Answer: Mr Wojciechowski
on behalf of the European Commission
Question: Measure 14 of the 2014-2020 national and EU rural development programmes, which concerns the welfare of goats and sheep and related aid for livestock farmers, is now being implemented.
According to media reports, however, it is not being implemented fully and correctly in Greece as a result of technical or institutional issues arising (regarding farm veterinarians, for example) and, most importantly, because of a lack of strategic planning and preparedness. According to breeders, the welfare of sheep and goats has deteriorated further in recent years and the sector is now in crisis.
In view of this:
- Can the Commission say how other Member States have implemented this measure to protect the welfare of goats and sheep and what has been their average take-up of EU funding earmarked for this purpose?
2 Can it say how the measure has been implemented in Greece and what has been its take-up of EU funding earmarked for this purpose?
3 What results have been obtained thanks to this measure in Greece and, on average, in other Member States where it has been implemented?
Answer: The current version of the Greek Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) does not provide support for animal welfare (measure 14). Greece has not implemented such a measure in the past either.
In the current 2014-2020 programming period, 17 Member States have included the support to adopt animal welfare standards going beyond the mandatory requirements in 33 rural development (RD) programmes.
Out of the total EAFRD budget in 2014-2020 of around EUR 100 billion, EUR 1.8 billion has been programmed to animal welfare support under Measure 14. At the end of 2019, EUR 1.2 billion (67.9%) was already spent.
However, the support under other RD measures that can usefully complement measure 14 (e.g. investments in animal housing conditions, training and advice, as well as EIP-AGRI) is not included in this figure.
Member States have set the target to support animal welfare, involving almost 200 000 beneficiaries, which translates into 6.5 billion livestock units. The monitoring system at the EU level does not allow providing data only for sheep and goats sector.
The evaluation of the animal welfare measure implementation and it impact will only be possible after the ongoing RD programmes are closed.
The support for animal welfare will continue to be available under the common agricultural policy (CAP) post 2020. The Commission proposal for the future CAP identifies as one of its objectives the need to improve the response of EU agriculture to societal demands on animal welfare.
