In the interests of biodiversity and human and animal health, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) want the EU to take an ambitious stance at the 19th Conference of the Parties to the CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (COP19, Panama, 14-25 November).
By means of oral questions adopted on Tuesday 14 June, they question, in the same terms, the European Commission and the Council of the EU on the main strategic ambitions of the EU for this COP.
They also ask how they intend to act against the risk of zoonotic disease transmission from global wildlife trade.
MEPs also want to know the status and follow-up in Member States of the 2016 EU action plan to curb wildlife crime.
In a draft resolution, the ENVI Committee stresses “the clear need for a precautionary approach to wildlife protection, given the continuing threat posed by the wildlife trade to certain animals and species and to human and animal health”.
It highlights “the important role that CITES should play in preventing future pandemics as a regulator of international wildlife trade”.
MEPs also call on the Commission and Member States, as well as all parties, to increase their financial support for the implementation of CITES decisions.
They want a new resolution to be adopted at COP19 “encouraging parties to consider the use and trade of wildlife under the ‘One Health’ approach and to conduct appropriate animal, human and environmental health risk analyses”.
Oral question to the Commission : https://aeur.eu/f/23q and to the EU Council : https://aeur.eu/f/23p
Draft resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/23r (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)