Document type: article published in Euractiv
Author: Hugo Struna
Preview: NGOs are calling on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to include the issue of animal welfare in the "Vision for Agriculture and Food", announced in her speech to the European Parliament last week. "President [Ursula] von der Leyen's speech to the European Parliament and her policy guidelines [...] made no mention of the legally binding commitment to end cage farming and on the wider revision of legislation at animal welfare ," commented Olga Kikou, Advocacy Director at the European Institute for Animal Law and Policy, in a press release. In light of the declaration by Ursula von der Leyen on July 18 that she would unveil a "Vision for Agriculture and Food" and specific commitments during her first 100 days in office, animal protection groups are calling on her to "include" animal welfare in these. A major revision of the animal welfare legislation was a core project for the previous parliament. In 2020, the European Commission had announced the initiative in the Farm to Fork strategy, before admitting at the end of its mandate that the legislation would be pushed into the next parliament. In December 2023, two major pieces of legislation had nevertheless been proposed and adopted by the European Parliament and the EU Council, one on animal transport - a "key element" of the legislation - and the other on the welfare and traceability of pets. Animal welfare groups have criticised a number of flaws in the European Commission's new proposals to introduce stricter rules on animal transport, including gaps in the promised range of measures.
Illegal practices [...]Cage farming
At the end of June, several major European NGOs also launched a legal action at the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), accusing the Commission of failure to fulfil its commitment to end cage farming by 2023. This pledge had been made in response to the "End the Cage Age" European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) , supported by 170 European NGOs. "We expect of Ursula von der Leyen that she will not ignore in her investiture speech the cage ban promised three years ago", warned the NGO CIWF on July 17.
The associations' second priority for the next legislature is the end of fur in Europe. In 2023, the citizens' initiative "No Fur in Europe" (Fur Free Europe) collected over 1.5 million signatures. Shortly afterwards, the Council came out in favor of the ban.
Changes to slaughtering rules and animal welfare labeling are also among the issues eagerly awaited.
On Wednesday July 24, two new European citizens' initiatives were registered. One, on the closure of livestock farms - "Stop Cruelty Stop Slaughter" - calls on the Commission to boost the production of plant proteins, notably milk and egg substitutes of plant origin, as well as the production of cultivated meat. The other concerns food labelling. The Commission is invited to take steps to improve the transparency of information on food products, in terms of quality and sustainability. This should lead to clear labelling of the origin of all products.
If these initiatives gather more than a million signatures from citizens in at least seven member states within a year, the Commission will be invited to act. "It is still possible for the President [of the Commission] to take on board the demands of the vast majority of Europeans and put the revision of the animal welfare legislation back on the agenda by including it in her Vision for Agriculture and Food", concludes Olga Kikou.
