Members of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee expressed different positions on Monday 3 December in Brussels on the conditions of transport of farm animals (see EUROPE 12150).
The draft report on the protection of animals during transport will be put to vote on 23 January 2019 in the Committee on Agriculture for adoption in plenary in February.
The rapporteur, Jørn Dohrmann (ECR, Denmark), considered that EU legislation in this area could be “improved”. He stressed the “important differences” between Member States in terms of the number of inspections in trucks. He spoke out in favour of reducing the time it takes to transport animals, a divisive issue. Jan Huitema (ALDE, Netherlands) stressed that reducing these journeys would not necessarily lead to better well-being.
“We must not forget farmers, who are against ill-treatment” said Sofia Ribeiro (EPP, Portugal), who would have preferred a more balanced Parliament report, as the EU is a model in this area. “You can't ban transport as soon as an animal is sick”, she said.
Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, Netherlands) called for an end to the transport of livestock to third countries. Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany) stressed the need to strengthen controls and sanctions and to create slaughterhouses at the farm level. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)