Brussels, 16/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - As of Monday 16 October, Slovenia will apply Community rules in force in the Union to guarantee the welfare of animals during transport (Directive 91/628/EC concerning the protection of animals during transport and Regulation 411/98/EC establishing additional norms to be applied to road vehicles travelling more than eight hours).
In concrete terms, Slovenia will proceed to inspections and controls of cross-border animal transport in order to guarantee that the conditions and the duration of this international transport are conform to Community legislation, the latter having been transposed into national law in the context of the pre-accession process.
In April this year, Commissioner David Byrne had presented to all candidate countries (during a TAIEX, Technical Assistance Information Exchange Office, meeting in London) an action plan to be implemented to improve, in the short term, the welfare of animals during long haulage transport, by the control of vehicles used and the number of animals transported, health inspections on the animals before and during the transport and the obligation to care for any animals that may have suffered. Slovenia is the first of these countries to respond to this invitation.
In a press release, European Commissioner David Byrne welcomes this move forward and states: "I hope this will set the scene for an equally fast implementation of these rules throughout the Accession countries (…). Such improvements are badly needed, especially in the conditions for transporting horses. The progress made in Slovenia strengthens my belief that the most effective way to achieve better welfare standards is to work towards an international consensus on animal transport".