European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not mention the revision of EU’s outdated animal welfare legislation in her State of the Union speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday morning.
In her speech, she covered all EU’s major policy areas, including the European Green Deal, biodiversity, food security and agriculture, but animal welfare was conspicuously absent, despite commitments to propose a revised legislation by the third quarter of 2023 or by the latest the end of this year.
The speech dwells on the need to preserve “the Europe of unique biological diversity” and “securing our food supply with and in nature.” She also took the opportunity to “pay tribute to our farmers and thank them for providing us with food every day”. Referring to “more sustainable agriculture”, she said that she wanted to “start a strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture in the EU”.
As reported yesterday, animal welfare organisations were worried that the Commission would backslide on its commitment to present a package of revised animal welfare legislation. A Commission source tried to dispel their fears and told The Brussels Times that, “animal welfare is and will remain a priority for the Commission.”
Millions of EU citizens support animal welfare issues and have signed European Citizens’ Initiatives to improve the legislation. In an open letter last week, more than 600 stakeholders called on the Commission President to publish animal welfare proposals in the current political term. The total absence of any reference in the state of the Union speech to the proposals confirmed their worst fears.
“The silence on animal welfare was deafening,” commented Joe Moran, Director of European Policy Office at FOUR PAWS. “This should have been the moment of truth. Civil society has been promised action to overhaul our Union’s antiquated animal welfare rules time and time again, and yet we heard nothing? This is unacceptable.”
Olga Kikou, Head of Compassion in World Farming EU, also used blunt terms. “What happened today is scandalous. The European Commission has gone back on its word to give animals a life worth living, bowing to the demands of the Big Agri lobby and killing the new animal welfare laws by delaying. They have betrayed the trust of its citizens and have turned EU democracy into an empty shell.”
Asked about the absence of animal welfare in the speech, a Commission spokesperson told The Brussels Times that it does not imply that the issue has disappeared from the political radar. The Commission is committed to revise EU’s animal welfare legislation and is working on it. It has an ambitious agenda and no deadline is set for when a proposal for the revised legislation will be ready.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
