As part of his potential new portfolio as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the ‘European Green Deal’, Maroš Šefčovič gave assurances during his hearings as nominated candidate that he would present a proposal on the revision of the rules on the transport of farm animals in December (see EUROPE 13263/1 and other news in this bulletin).
Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French), chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, told a press conference on Wednesday 4 October that the Commission had undertaken to present in December only part of the package for revising the rules on animal welfare, concerning the welfare of animals during transport.
“We knew that the text of the European Commission on the revision of the animal welfare rules was almost off the table. The part of the text on animal transport is back on the table”, noted Mr Canfin (see EUROPE 13247/7).
At his hearing before the Environment Committee on Tuesday 3 October, Maroš Šefčovič said in particular: “I am committed to this issue. 80% of people in Europe want us to treat nature and animals better”. He said he was working with a group of commissioners on this “very complex” issue, “which involves many aspects”: transport, the treatment of caged animals and slaughterhouses. “We are trying to see what we can do, what kind of transitional period to put in place, what the costs associated with this are”, said Šefčovič.
Some NGOs, including Compassion in World Farming EU, lamented that the Commission was abandoning its commitment to ban cages for farm animals. The NGO FOUR PAWS says it is “very disappointed” about the delay in reforming the rules on animal protection. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur, with Nithya Paquiry)