Document type : Article published on the Euractiv website
Author: Magdalena Pistorius
Preview: Germany and the United Kingdom are both angling to become pioneers in the field of animal welfare, with the UK saying Brexit has given it new freedom to boost standards. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Animal welfare is a hot topic in the EU right now. Most recently, the European citizens' initiative End the Cage Age, which collected more than 1.4 million signatures between 2018 and 2020, received support at a hearing in the European Parliament.
Animal welfare is also a key part of the EU's flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F), in which the European Commission outlined the need for the revision of European animal welfare legislation.
As part of this push, members of an inquiry committee on animal welfare in transport (ANIT) called on the Commission during a recent hearing to consider ending the export of live farmed animals to third countries.
At the December EU summit, European leaders also agreed to the introduction of a uniform EU-wide animal welfare label, an initiative driven by Germany with the backing of the country's Agriculture Ministry (BMEL), which would like to see Germany become a pioneer in animal welfare.
The UK - a global pioneer?
However, it is the UK, the first country in the world to grant animals legal protection from "unnecessary suffering" back in 1822, which has always been the front runner in the development of EU law on animal welfare, according to the British legal news website Jurist.
Having left the EU, the UK is free to unilaterally advance animal welfare standards, British animal welfare organisation RSPCA has said.
This view is apparently shared by the British government. The export of live farm animals, for example, could soon be a thing of the past, as the UK Environment Ministry announced in December.
The planned export ban is part of a "renewed effort by the government to strengthen the UK's position as a global leader in animal welfare."
The UK is the first country in Europe to end this practice, while within the EU, the transport of livestock, primarily on the way to the slaughterhouse, is also permitted across borders. […]
British Environment Minister George Eustice recently hailed the British initiative as a "Brexit success." However, the livestock export ban is limited in its scope.
Currently only England and Wales are affected by the ban, with Scottish participation pending. EU law continues to apply in Northern Ireland for the time being.
Most significantly of all, the ban excludes poultry. The UK exports millions of chickens every year, with exports worth 139 million pounds in 2018, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The UK also lags behind many EU countries when it comes to caged animal husbandry.
End the Cage Age ranks the UK only 8th among its list of the most cage-free countries in Europe.
