Brussels, 18/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Among the 13 countries summoned two months ago to comply with new animal welfare standards for laying hens, 12 are still in danger of feeling the wrath of the European Commission. Romania is the only country among the 13 that has introduced appropriate measures in this respect.
At the end of January, the Commission sent letters of formal notice to 13 member states that since 1 January 2012 had not been respecting the directive on the well being of laying hens. This directive bans conventional cages. The countries concerned had two months to respond to these letters. A spokesman for John Dalli, the commissioner for health, said that DG Health and Consumer Protection at the European Commission had received many responses and according to a preliminary analysis there was at least one country, Romania, which had rectified the identified shortcomings. The spokesman said that there were still too many countries that had failed in this respect, but at least there was one less than in January. He did not rule out the fact that a number of countries may have introduced compliance measures because some of them had claimed that they have managed to implement the directive. The 12 countries in danger of receiving a statement of objections (the second stage of the infringement procedure), which will be sent before summer (in May or June) are as follows: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland and Portugal.
The Commission estimates that 47 million laying hens are kept in cages that are too small and badly kept. Only as part of the transition process can eggs produced in infringement of these rules be allowed in the industry but their retail sales and exports have now been banned. New standards have provoked a shortage of eggs in Europe and a subsequent rise in prices and imports from the US, Mexico and Turkey, in particular. (LC/transl.fl)