The European Commission adopted on Wednesday 7 July an ‘inception impact assessment’ setting out options for the revision of animal welfare legislation.
The Commission is also launching a consultation, until 3 August 2021, to gather views from stakeholders for the revision of the rules.
As foreseen in the Farm to Fork strategy, the Commission is to review all animal welfare legislation by the end of 2023. Although the process of assessing the measures to be taken will not be completed until 2022, the Commission has already identified a number of shortcomings in farming, transport, and slaughter conditions.
For the transport of live animals, it proposes in particular that there be the option to ban exports of certain species to third countries. It also suggests banning long journeys for unweaned and other vulnerable animals.
Regarding castration, tail docking, and dehorning, it suggests either banning these practices or limiting them to what is strictly necessary.
On animal welfare labelling, it poses three options: imposing minimum requirements on national labels, creating a European label only on the issue of cages, or creating a European animal welfare label.
Link to the study: https://bit.ly/3yPmqcj
Link to the consultation: https://bit.ly/3yAOcZD (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)