Document type: September 2024 Newsletter of the VetAgro SupAnimal Welfare Chair
Author: Luc Mounier
Preview: The European Commission has appointed Olivér Várhelyi as Commissioner for Health and Animal and Welfare. He will be responsible for helping to implement the recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue on the future of European agriculture. In particular, this report indicates that the revision of European animal welfare legislation should be brought forward by 2026, and confirms the intention to ban cage farming. These two pieces of news offer some encouragement, although we should wait and continue to be cautious until we see the actual proposals from the Commission. The proposals will then be forwarded to the Member States... Fortunately, in France, after two months of uncertainty, we now have a new Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry. We don't yet know her stance on animal welfare, and here too, patience will be required. In short, waiting is the only thing we can do for the time being... let's just hope we don't have to wait too long for new animal-friendly regulations to be passed.
In this month's newsletter: the Chair has posted a number of English-language resources on animal welfare on its website, an interview with the Association pour la protection des animaux sauvages (ASPAS), the Anses has published guidelines for the creation of animal welfare labels, educational fact sheets, our cliché of the month, Alain Ducos of ENVT's discussion on agroecology in his monthly newsletter, and a selection of press articles.
