The decision to appoint the first-ever Commissioner for Animal Welfare marks a historic victory for our movement and is important for tens of millions of EU citizens.
Will it also herald better conditions for animals in the EU?
The signals we have are moderately promising. Although it was concerning that only one priority out of the fourteen listed in the mission letter of Commissioner Várhelyi touched upon the welfare of animals, we were reassured by the outcomes of the hearings at the European Parliament. Regarding Commissioner Várhelyi himself, although animal welfare did not appear to be among his top priorities, the tragic fate of the heifers stuck at the Turkish border affected him deeply and he expressed willingness to act immediately to improve the situation on the ground.
The Commissioner also confirmed his intention to work on modernising EU animal welfare rules with specific reference to the long-overdue ban on cages demanded by 1.4 million European citizens in the past political term.
Unfortunately, the Commissioner didn’t come up with a concrete timeline for the publication of the remaining animal welfare proposals, underlining that another round of consultations is required. Although we remain open to dialogue, we believe that we have already gone through a comprehensive preparatory phase for this new legislation. The fitness check, the impact assessment, the work done for years within the European Commission’s Platform on Animal Welfare, and more recently, the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture all confirmed that the new legislation has been long overdue and that much better provisions are needed, both for the animals and the farmers. In line with the Strategic Dialogue report, these new rules should be delivered by 2026.
During the hearing, there was a strong focus on better enforcement and implementation. While we agree that this would be ideal, experience from the past decades shows that, with all other factors remaining the same, this will be extremely challenging. Commissioner Várhelyi himself recognised that the existing rules are old and often give rise to differing interpretations among Member States. This can’t just be changed by better enforcement. We need to improve the rules themselves.
Another big question remaining after the hearing is whether the Commissioner for Animal Welfare will act for all animals in the EU, as the title would lead us to assume. There was no mention of the welfare of animals in laboratories, in the wild, and companion animals. However, this portfolio is still new, and we can only trust that the Commissioner for Animal Welfare will heed the many calls from European citizens and act for all animals.
Modernising animal welfare legislation will have to go hand in hand with supporting farmers in transitioning away from current farming systems. Commissioner-designate for Agriculture Hansen declared that farmers care for their animals and want to improve their welfare. It remains unclear how the EU main funding instrument, the CAP, should serve this interest. The report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture presents many suggestions on how to create a fairer and more effective CAP.
To ensure EU citizens do not unknowingly drive low animal welfare standards in other parts of the world with their purchases, it is essential to apply the upcoming new animal welfare rules to imports. We very much welcome the commitments on this matter made by Commissioners Várhelyi and Hansen. As well as respecting citizens’ wishes, applying EU animal welfare standards to imports will be fairer to EU producers, who will never be able to compete in a race to the bottom with countries like Brazil or Thailand, where feed and labour costs will always be much lower than in the EU. It is time to see higher animal welfare for what it is: a selling argument in a world where citizens increasingly care.
The EU likes to pride itself on being a global leader in animal protection. The TFEU acknowledges animals as sentient beings and stipulates that the EU and Member States need to pay full regard to their welfare requirements. Three ECIs, two Eurobarometers, and countless petitions and investigations have shown that EU citizens desperately want to see change. Forty EFSA opinions have yet to be incorporated into animal welfare legislation. The suffering on the ground is immense. We will invite Commissioner Várhelyi to witness this first-hand. The time has come for the first-ever Commissioner for Animal Welfare to write history for animals.
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