The European Commission won’t ban the export of dwell animals to non-EU international locations in its forthcoming proposal on the safety of animals throughout transport, in keeping with a leaked draft, as an alternative opting to double down on lowered journey occasions and on area allowances. Natasha Foote has the inside track.
The proposal, on account of be offered 6 December, is among the promised 4 that had been initially speculated to make up the EU’s overhaul of the animal welfare laws, as set out within the EU’s flagship meals coverage, the Farm to Fork technique.
However, with EU elections looming and amid a concerted pushback from the suitable of the Parliament, the proposal has ended up being the one one left on the Commission’s menu nonetheless on account of be revealed earlier than the tip of its mandate.
Animal Welfare Leakage
Despite staunch help for such a transfer from animal welfare teams and residents, the leaked draft textual content dismisses the thought of inserting a ban on the export of dwell animals to 3rd international locations.
This is as a result of the commerce “would be replaced by other countries of origin with suboptimal animal welfare, economic and environmental results,” the draft proposal reads. Instead, the proposal foresees the “possibility of exporting under stricter conditions”.
Some 1.4 billion animals are transported every year with a cross-border motion, each between EU member states and to 3rd international locations. This signifies that it has a big impression on the “functioning of the internal market”, the draft factors out.
Maintaining that the transport of dwell animals is an “essential part of the agri-food chain,” the
proposal as an alternative focuses on setting stricter circumstances for export and transport, together with elevated area allowances, real-time monitoring and lowered journey occasions.
In the case of animals meant for slaughter, lengthy journeys are outlined as “those lasting longer than 9 hours”, as per the latest steering issued by the EU’s meals security authority (EFSA).
According to knowledge from the European Commission, over a 3rd of dwell animals’ journeys within the EU are between eight and 24 hours lengthy. The quantity is even increased for horses, cattle, sheep and goats, which accounts for greater than 40% of journeys.
This “simplification” is aimed “to strengthen the implementation of the journey times and […] to limit the journeys of all animals for slaughter,” the proposal units out, including that proof suggests most slaughterhouses for various species are available inside a 9-hour journey.
Meanwhile, exporting beneath stricter circumstances – together with guidelines on most journey occasions for highway transports and stricter maritime security necessities for livestock vessels – would imply “significant improvements to animal welfare,” the draft textual content maintains.
Stressing the duty of EU transporters to guard animals throughout transport “does not end at the external borders” of the EU, the textual content units out that the regulation ought to “apply to the transport of animals regardless of whether the establishment of destination is in the territory of the Union or in a third country”.
The proposal plans to part in these modifications to permit actors to “adapt gradually”, providing a 5-year transition interval for journey occasions, area allowances, exports and actual time monitoring, lowered to three years for brand spanking new guidelines on the transport of cats and dogs.
In this manner, it “seek[s] a balance between protecting the welfare of animals during transport whilst ensuring the economic viability of the sector”.
Perspectives
The information is unlikely to please animal welfare teams, who’ve lengthy been campaigning for an finish to the export of dwell animals.
“The transnational nature of live exports makes it especially challenging to protect the welfare of animals, and this is why we ask for a ban on live exports to non-EU countries,” Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals, stated in a press release on Tuesday (28 November), calling for a swap to a commerce in meat and carcasses solely.
The information comes on the again of a brand new report on long-distance commerce in cattle revealed by the group along with Compassion in World Farming this week, which discovered that as many as 44 million farmed animals a yr – together with unweaned calves and lambs – undergo journeys lasting as much as three weeks.
This was put right down to “inadequate and misleading official records” that are “masking the true horror and scale of the EU’s long-distance trade in farmed animals,” the group stated. “The immense scale of suffering highlighted by this investigation cannot be ignored – the Commission must come forward with a more ambitious regulation,” Hameleers stated.
Likewise, the 2023 Special Eurobarometer discovered that eight out of ten Europeans suppose the journey time for the business transport of dwell animals inside or from the EU ought to be restricted, whereas 9 out of ten folks imagine it’s vital to guard the welfare of farmed animals.
However, the thought of banning long-distance journeys and dwell animal exports to 3rd international locations has proved a bone of competition throughout the farming neighborhood.
This is as a result of transportation of dwell animals “plays a vital role in maintaining the economic strength and social vibrancy of territories, with main production areas in many cases located in depopulating or almost depopulated areas”, European farmers’ affiliation COPA-COGECA stated beforehand in a press release.
Likewise, a coalition of 9 EU agriculture ministers joined forces to push again in opposition to a possible ban on dwell animal transport to 3rd international locations again firstly of the yr.
Portuguese minister Maria do Céu Antunes, who led the coalition, stated on the time that the revision’s purpose ought to as an alternative be making certain “high levels of animal welfare in intra-community trade and in the export of live animals” fairly than a complete ban.
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