Document type : Written answer published in the French Journal Officiel
Authors: Question: Typhanie Degois (La République en Marche - Savoie). Answer: French Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Question: Ms Typhanie Degois draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food to the rearing of chickens in cages in France. A European citizens' initiative initiated on 11 September 2018 and currently supported by a coalition of more than one hundred and seventy European organisations calling for a ban on the use of cages in livestock farming, has collected more than one million signatures. This strong response reflects the growing commitment of citizens to improve the treatment of farm animals. In this regard, Law No. 2018-938 of 30 October 2018 for balanced trade relations in the agricultural and food sector and healthy, sustainable food accessible to all, constitutes a step forward thanks to the ban on the production or redevelopment of any new building for the farming of laying hens in cages. While this ban reflects certain undertakings made during the French States General on Food intended to eliminate the use of battery cages for laying hens in favour of alternative farming methods, the law does not currently set any deadline for banning the rearing of hens in cages. The sale of battery eggs to consumers is supposed to be banned by 2022, but France is falling behind on this societal issue, while several other European countries have already committed to banning caged egg production systems (Germany will be cage-free by 2025). Therefore, at a time when 60.8% of laying hens in France are still raised in cage systems, she asked whether the Government intended to set a deadline for banning this farming system for laying hens in France in favour of alternative systems.
Answer: The expectations of the public in terms of animal welfare are increasingly high and meeting them is a necessity. Animal welfare must be considered to be a sustainability factor for the French and European animal sectors. Following the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) "End the Cage Age", calling for a ban on cages for laying hens, rabbits, pullets, broiler breeders, breeding laying hens, quails, ducks and geese, farrowing pens for sows, stalls for sows and individual pens for calves, the European Commission made the proposal in Summer 2021 to phase out and eventually ban the use of such systems for all these species and categories, within a framework (including the length of the transition period) to be determined on the basis of the opinions of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and an impact assessment. This impact assessment, which should be completed by the end of 2022, will address, inter alia, the feasibility of bringing the proposed legislation into force in 2027. The need to support farmers financially and otherwise during this transition must be taken into account. In addition, the Commission states that options for achieving higher animal welfare standards in third countries and for introducing products to the market that meet European standards will need to be examined. Improving animal welfare is a priority for the French government.
Legislation must evolve in the light of fresh scientific information and be based, as provided for by the Commission, on prior robust impact studies, in terms of both knowledge and the technical and economic impact of the planned changes. These will entail major transformation in the associated sectors, which must receive support to ensure that economic stakeholders are equipped to take responsibility for them.
France is committed to the principle of reciprocity on the subject of animal welfare and will promote it under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union so that imported products meet the same standards as European products. France has already committed itself to the abolition of cages for laying hens. Indeed, Article 68 of the law for balanced trade relations in the agricultural and food sector and healthy, sustainable food accessible to all, promulgated on 30 October 2018, now prohibits the production of any new or refurbished building for rearing laying hens raised in cages. The acceleration of the transition to an alternative rearing model is already well underway, since in 2021, 64% of laying hens were in alternative systems to cages (compared to 19% in 2008, 33% in 2016, 37% in 2017 and 42% in 2018). However, not all caged layer farms can be converted to alternative systems in the short term without causing difficulties for farmers. Indeed, in 2012, caged laying hen farmers were required to invest in bringing their cages up to standard. As the loan repayment deadlines for this can extend to the end of 2026, it is necessary that transition periods should be built into the process leading up to the European ban and/or that a support system for the conversion of farms should be provided.
The government intends to use all available levers to accelerate this transformation. Thus, at the European level, France is also working to improve the conditionality of certain Common Agricultural Policy subsidies on compliance with current animal welfare standards, for example by including compliance with the regulations on the protection of broiler poultry and laying hens as part of cross-compliance.
With a view to drawing up the national strategic plan (NSP) for the post-2020 CAP, France has drawn up an assessment system where the issue of animal welfare has been included in the the diagnostic criteria for key objective I: "Improve the response of EU agriculture to societal demands on food and health, including high-quality, safe and nutritious food produced in a sustainable way, to reduce food waste, as well as to improve animal welfare". This analysis, which was a preliminary step in the development of the NSP strategy, was validated by the Higher Council for Agriculture on 5 February 2020. The draft NSP, sent to the European Commission at the end of December, does indeed include measures to aid investment which can be activated by the regions to support livestock farms. The national recovery plan represents a further opportunity to develop farming practices that are more favourable to animal welfare. The support provided to farms takes the form of a biosecurity/animal welfare pact with the regions. The aim is to enable farmers to invest and be trained to improve animal disease prevention, to support research and to ensure that farming conditions are improved in terms of animal welfare. In particular, this action makes it possible to support free-range farming and to improve the consideration of animal welfare, of which health is an important component.
Last, in accordance with the government's commitments made in January 2020, the appointment of an animal welfare advisor on each farm is now effective since the publication of Decree no. 2020-1625 of 20 December 2020 and the order specifying the appointment procedures on 29 December 2021. Since 1 January 2022, all establishments for the breeding and rearing of domestic animals (livestock, pets, equines) and for wild animals that are trained or held in captivity must appoint an animal welfare officer. This new duty is accompanied by a training requirement for advisors in pig and poultry farming. The advisors in these sectors will have to commit to a certified training programme which must be completed within 18 months.
