Revision of the animal welfare legislation

Key points

The EESC:

• suggests the Commission to take into account the practical knowledge of farmers, transporters and veterinarians, to implement and harmonise the regulations;
• understands that legislation unable to adapt to the varied circumstances in the 27 Member States will open the door to asymmetrical situations;
• calls on the Commission to ensure that the implementation costs of this regulation are not borne by stakeholders in the sector;
• emphasises that the provisions laid down in the proposal for a regulation require operators to work night shifts (especially farmers, drivers and veterinarians);
• calls on the Commission to consider the impact this proposal will have on supply chains that have been built and distributed over the years on the basis of current time constraints;
• warns of the consequences of limiting the transport of animals for slaughter to short journeys of less than nine hours;
• considers that new proposed technical standards on the fitness for transport of terrestrial animals could lead to the closure of many livestock farms;
• believes that the ban on transporting young animals (such as calves, lambs, kids, piglets and foals, which have not been weaned) on long road journeys will have a significant impact on imports of animal breeds from other EU Member States;
• calls on the Commission to consider the climate-related characteristics of each Member State in relation to Article 31 of the proposal;
• maintains that it is essential to promote short supply chains as an effective solution for reducing the need for long journeys by shortening the distance between the places the animals are reared, fattened, slaughtered and consumed;
• supports the initiatives activating sanitary, economic and legal levers to preserve local slaughterhouses and encourage on-farm slaughtering where appropriate to the size of the farm and the local context.