Less room for interpretation of EU on-farm animal welfare rules; Financing for farmers and reciprocity in imports; Harmonised EU animal welfare labelling system
EU on-farm animal welfare legislation should be clarified to assure more uniform application across Member States.
In the resolution on the implementation report on EU on-farm animal welfare legislation, adopted on Tuesday by 496 votes to 140 and 51 abstentions, MEPs led by the rapporteur Jérémy Decerle (Renew, FR) stress that the current EU legislation on the welfare of food-producing animals is not fully implemented in all Member States. The Parliament calls for clearer rules, support of farmers applying them in practice and reciprocity for imported products.
Uniform implementation and support for farmers
The resolution calls for clearer EU animals welfare rules leaving less room for interpretation. The legislation must be uniformly and fully transposed in all Member States, rather than tightened or further extended. The revision of the animal welfare rules should be based on scientific data, impact assessments and a species by species approach, the text says.
The Parliament warns, however, that practices intended to improve animal well-being can incur higher production costs and increase farmers’ workload. Therefore, farmers must be provided with sufficient time, support, training and financing, insists the MEPs.
Reciprocity in imports
The update of animal welfare rules should take into account EU farmers’ competitiveness in the global agricultural market, according to the MEPs. For this reason, they call on the Commission to negotiate reciprocity clauses at a multilateral level and in bilateral agreements regarding compliance with animal welfare standards for imported products. The import into Europe of livestock or meat that does not comply with European animal welfare standards should be prohibited, according to the Parliament.
Welfare labelling of animal products
As current voluntary and mostly private EU animal welfare labelling systems vary considerably, MEPs advocate for a mandatory EU framework for voluntary labelling, which would provide a practical framework but leave room for private initiatives.
Next steps
The European Commission has announced that it would revise the EU animal welfare legislative framework and present a proposal on animal welfare labelling by the end of 2023.
Background
The resolution addresses the implementation of directives concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes, on the protection of laying hens, chickens kept for meat production, calves and pigs.