Animal Welfare on the Agenda of Luxembourg’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union

On July 1, Luxembourg assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months. Eurogroup for Animals promptly published a memorandum on animal welfare policies to be developed during Luxembourg’s presidency, as it will end just as the College of Commissioners is set to submit its report on the subject. Indeed, the current Strategy for Animal Protection and Animal Welfare 2012–2015 expires at the end of the year, while 11 out of 20 provisions have still not been implemented.   The Eurogroup therefore expects the new presidency to ensure that the current strategy is fully implemented and calls on the Commission to present a new strategy for 2016–2020, with priorities including, among others, the full implementation of Article 13* of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union regarding animal sentience. Furthermore, the new strategy should extend legislative protection to all categories of animals, including pets, equines, dairy cows, and wildlife, while also reviewing existing rules regarding animal welfare during commercial animal transport. Finally, according to the Eurogroup, all mutilations practiced in animal husbandry should also be phased out. A dedicated, harmonized, science-based framework law could be one of the mechanisms capable of addressing current gaps, but it should never replace existing legislation. Despite the absence of a clear reference to animal protection in the Luxembourg Presidency’s program, it will be up to the Presidency to play a central role in ensuring that animal welfare is effectively taken into account when EU policies are developed. Indeed, despite the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force in 2009, animals are described in European legislation only in terms of meat, raw materials, or products—never as sentient beings. In Luxembourg, an update to the animal welfare law is currently under public consultation, which could pave the way for other Member States. Beyond these policy decisions, the memorandum addressed to the Luxembourg Presidency lists the Eurogroup for Animals’ key requests:

• Cloning: Support a total ban on the cloning of animals for food purposes, as well as on imports of cloned animals, their offspring, semen, embryos, and other products derived from clones.
• Sustainable agricultural policy: Encourage the development of a new sustainable EU food policy that recognizes the improvement of Livestock animal welfare as a key element necessary to address environmental and resource management challenges; ensure that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), an important component of a broader framework, fully takes into account animal welfare and addresses the environmental and public health issues linked to poor livestock farming practices.
• Organic production and labels: revise the regulation to ensure the development and harmonization of higher animal welfare standards in organic agriculture, so as to cover all stages of the animals’ lives (breeding, rearing, transport, and slaughter), and take into account scientific advice on the subject issued, in particular, by EFSA.
• Animal feed and human food: ensure that ante-mortem inspections conducted by veterinary services, as well as random checks on live animals during long-distance transport and at the time of slaughter, are maintained until they are replaced by new legislation.
• Animal transport: Reactivate the working groups established following the Commission’s 2011 report on this subject and actively work to reduce the number of animals transported, reduce the frequency and duration of animal transport, and halt the export of live animals to third countries that slaughter them without stunning and without complying with the standards recommended by the WOAH.
• Slaughter: Clarify the situation regarding the exemption from pre-slaughter stunning, which is used to produce large quantities of meat for religious communities in third countries.
• Castration of piglets: Ensure that the issue of surgical castration of piglets remains on the political agenda and that additional funding is provided by the European Commission to phase out this mutilation.
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): Begin preparing the EU’s position for the next Conference of the Parties (COP 21), ensuring it is consistent with the European Biodiversity Strategy to 2020.
• Zoos: Promote the publication of a guide on best practices for zoos in the Union and ensure its adoption in all Member States.
• Invasive Alien Species: Promote the development, within the current European legislative framework, of guidelines and/or best practices that encourage humane management and non-lethal methods for the removal of these species.
• Habitats and Wild Birds Directives: Ensure that current levels of protection and conservation of habitats and wildlife are not lowered or that the texts are not watered down in the event of a merger of the two directives.
• Fur-bearing animals: Ensure that fur farming is not covered by the framework law on animal welfare, but that its prohibition is encouraged on a country-by-country basis.
• Pet animal welfare: Organize an expert meeting with the Commission to follow up on the 2013 conference on the animal welfare of dogs and cats in Europe in the context of commercial practices.
• Equine welfare: Support the first European conference on this topic, which will present the results of the large-scale survey conducted on the protection of horses, mules, and donkeys across Europe.
• Endocrine disruptors: Prioritize the use of alternatives to animal testing when evaluating these substances.
• Mandatory registration of breeders and sellers: work with national authorities to the addition of a new article to the Animal Health Act to clarify the legal provisions of existing articles and ensure that all breeders and sellers of pets and equines are required to register in Member States.

    * Article 13 TFEU: “In formulating and implementing the Union’s policies in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, transport, the internal market, research and technological development, and space, the Union and the Member States shall take full account of the animal welfare requirements of animals as sentient beings, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating, in particular, to religious rites, cultural traditions, and regional heritage.”