Brussels, 24/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - European rules on protecting animals during transport must be observed in any part of a journey that takes place outside the territory of the EU, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on Thursday 24 April in case C-424/13.
When a German company submitted an application for customs clearance for a consignment of cattle to be transported by road to Uzbekistan, a journey of 7,000 kilometres, the competent authorities rejected the application. They insisted that the route planning of the journey be amended as there was no provision for any resting and transfer points - as required by the regulation (1/2005) on animal welfare during transport - for the part of the journey outside the EU.
A German court asked the Court of Justice whether the requirements with regard to the journey log also applied to the part of the journey outside the EU since the starting point of the journey was in a member state.
The answer from the European judges is a very definite “yes”. The organiser of a long journey for horses, cattle, pigs, sheep or goats must submit a “realistic” journey log which indicates that the provisions of the regulation will be complied with, including for the stages of the journey taking place outside the EU.
More specifically, the technical rules contained in the regulation on, for example, watering and feeding intervals and journey times and resting periods must be complied with throughout the whole journey. It is for national monitoring authorities to ensure compliance and to demand, where necessary, changes to arrangements to safeguard the welfare of the animals. (Jan Kordys)