Luxembourg, 20/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - A total of 12 member states may not be ready to implement the 1999 directive on protecting laying hens when it comes into effect on 1 January 2012. At the Agriculture Council on Thursday 20 October, the Commission threatened the 12 (Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Romania) with legal proceedings. Health Commissioner John Dalli once again refused to push back the deadline for removing conventional cages (so called “battery cages”). The legislation requires that such cages cease to be used from 1 January 2012 and that they be replaced with cages more able to satisfy the behavioural and biological needs of the birds (with nests and perches).
There was a 12-year transition period on this directive; member states should have been able to comply with the requirements, said Dalli. At the same time, he proposed that eggs produced illegally from the start of next year be allowed to be marketed, rather than destroy them and waste that production. “I cannot support the destruction of tonnes and tonnes of eggs and the killing of millions of hens”, he argued. The Commission proposes to put restrictions on the sale of illegally produced eggs until the member states concerned comply with EU legislation. The idea would be to ban the retail of these eggs and to restrict their use to industry inside the state where they were produced. Powdered egg, egg whites and egg yolks from these illegally produced eggs could thus be used inside the country of production but not be exported unless they formed a very small proportion of the finished product, such as in shampoos. (LC/transl.rt).