Document type: Answer to question E-000857/2023 from the European Commission.
Authors: question: Annika Bruna (ID), Eric Minardi (ID), Elżbieta Kruk (ECR), France Jamet (ID). Answer: Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission
Question: Unlike conventional farrowing crates, loose-housing pens allow sows to move around.According to an organisation of French farmers, installing loose-house systems on pig farms could cost up to EUR 2 billion. 1. Since the EU plans to phase out caged animal farming by 2027, has the Commission already begun drawing up a plan to financially support European pig farmers? 2. In order to combat unfair competition, is the Commission considering banning imports of pig products from farms that are not equipped with loose-housing pens?
Answer: 1. In its response to the European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) ‘End the Cage Age’, the Commission referred that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is intended to be one of the main instruments to support farmers in the transition towards to cage-free farming systems to the extent that Member States use these opportunities in their CAP national strategic plans.
2. In 2020, the Commission adopted the EU Farm to Fork Strategy[2] and committed to revise the EU animal welfare legislation by 2023 . The ongoing impact assessment for the revision of legislation is examining the different options to address the trade dimension of the revision, among which the option of requiring that imported products comply with equivalent animal welfare requirements. This is notably one of the options mentioned in the Commission’s Communication answering the ECI ‘End the Cage Age’.
