What is the aim of this Conference and who will attend? 

We are currently working on an ambitious project as part of the Farm to Fork Strategy to respond to the need to modernise the EU legislation on animal welfare and to improve its quality, reflecting the important scientific advancements in this area.  

As part of this, the Animal Welfare Stakeholder conference on Thursday 9 December will bring together all the major players involved in bettering the lives of animals across the EU. I am particularly pleased that renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall will join our Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, as well as the Agriculture Commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, Slovenian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Jože Podgoršek, and several MEPs at next week’s event to inspire our work. 

More than 150 attendees will join the conference that will address the challenges ahead and look forward to the changes in animal welfare legislation expected to have a profound and positive impact on animal welfare standards, both here in the European Union and beyond as well. 

What actions have the EU implemented in this area to date?   

The European Union has always had a strong track record in upholding the highest standard of animal welfare. Indeed, the EU has led by example in many areas. Since the adoption of the first EU animal welfare legislation in 1974, laws, regulations, and multiple actions that protect our animals have been routinely broadened and reinforced.  

Today, the quality of life for millions of animals across the EU has been greatly improved because of these efforts. Yet, we are not happy to stop there. We want to continue to make improvements, and EU citizens stand with us on this.  

In fact over a million EU citizens rallied around this year’s European Citizens’ Initiative: ‘End the Cage Age’, which called for the use of cages for certain farmed animals to be phased out and ultimately stopped altogether. We listened and took action, leading to a commitment to put forward a proposal by the end of 2023 to phase out the caging of certain animals. The upcoming revision of the animal welfare legislation is another leap forward from this already positive development.  

What is the Commission currently working on in this area and what is in the pipeline?   

Last year – amid a global pandemic – the Farm to Fork Strategy was adopted and endorsed by the Council in October 2020. All actions on animal welfare foreseen by the Strategy are progressing as planned. 

The Strategy states that animal welfare deserves special attention, including a complete revision of the legislation by the end 2023. Under the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, the Commission will revise five directives and two regulations, which protect animals on farms, during transport, and at slaughter. Next week’s Conference will also help shape these revisions. The process to evaluate the current legislation, known as a ‘fitness check’ will be concluded in 2022 and immediately afterwards, by end 2023, an impact assessment will be elaborated to support these Commission proposals. 

In addition, in June of this year, the Commission requested the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to produce a series of scientific Opinions related to the existing legislation and for species on farmed animals where no specific legislation exists today. These Opinions are expected to be delivered between June 2022 and March 2023. 

Another Farm to Fork Strategy commitment will look into possible options to establish a European label for animal welfare. Several labels for animal welfare already exist in the EU and the Commission has launched an external study to support its work.

What are the EU’s future ambitions in the area of Animal Welfare?   

The scientific Opinions to be produced by EFSA will help the European Commission in its revision of the animal welfare legislation These revisions will concern in particular transport, especially concerning the welfare of broilers and laying hens, calves, pigs, and dairy cows, and will also concern housing conditions, and particularly welfare of ducks, geese and quails. 

The Commission also sent a roadmap to EFSA summarising the animal welfare mandates it plans to send to EFSA between 2023 and 2028 to develop specific requirements for the welfare of other animal species not yet addressed by the current legislation. This reflects the Farm to Fork Strategy’s commitment to enlarge the scope of the current legislation.  

This will ensure that the progress being made to improve animal welfare will continue, and that animals in the EU are treated with dignity, respect and compassion. This is something that the Commission cares deeply about, and something that citizens and stakeholders demand.     

For more information and the Conference, please visit: EU Animal welfare today & tomorrow 

For all information on the Commission’s work on animal welfare, please visit: Animal welfare