The European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture will debate the draft report on Monday 3 December in Brussels, calling above all for the serious application of European rules on the welfare of animals during transport.
Eight MEPs from the Greens/EFA group who asked for a committee of inquiry into the case brought a complaint against the European Parliament before the Court of Justice (see EUROPE 12147). Instead, the European Parliament decided to entrust the Committee on Agriculture with the task of drafting a report on the transport of farm animals.
The European Parliament Agriculture Committee will debate for the first time on Monday the initiative draft report in question prepared by the Danish Jørn Dohrmann (ECR). It confirms the differences between Member States in the number of animal welfare inspections during transport, which varies from zero to several million per year, with infringements ranging from zero to 16.6%. The first solution proposed is to strengthen and harmonize the application of the legislation and provide for effective and dissuasive sanctions.
Updating rules. The report proposes an update of the rules on the transport of live animals as soon as possible, in particular as regards ventilation and cooling in vehicles or watering systems (especially for non-weaned animals).
The MEP stressed that "animal transport times should be reduced as much as possible", the best means being the use of local slaughterhouses, the replacement of the transport of breeding animals by semen or embryos, as well as the transport of carcasses and meat.
Finally, the report calls for a ban on the movement of live animals to third countries unless animal transport standards are brought into line with those of the EU. But the European Commission does not intend to ban exports of live animals. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)