The campaign for appointing a European Commissioner with responsibility for animal welfare in the EU reached a milestone on Tuesday with the hand-over of a petition signed by 310,000 citizens in support of the initiative to the European Commission.
The event took place in the European Parliament together with the most engaged MEPs in the campaign and marked the start of a new phase in the campaign for giving animals a strong voice in the Commission – if not in the current one, at least in the next one following the European elections in 2024. The proposal for an animal welfare Commissioner does not require any legislative change.
“Something might seem impossible until you are doing it,” said Adolfo Sansolini, advisor to Eurogroup for Animals and GAIA. The latter is Belgium’s leading animal welfare organisation which carried out the campaign. “It should be time to deliver when a new Commissioner will be appointed.” He expects that the political parties will include the proposal in their manifestos in the elections.
As previously reported, the campaign was launched in March 2021 and is supported by over 60 animal welfare organisations across Europe. By August 2023, it had been signed by 278,000 citizens. It had also gained traction in the European Parliament where over 190 MEPs in the European Parliament representing all political party groups had signed it.
The goal was to appoint a commissioner with responsibility for animal welfare in his or her title as soon as possible but by the latest in 2024. The European Commission could have needed a dedicated commissioner already now but it was understood already last Summer that the current Commission lacked the political will to appoint one before the end of its term.
In fact, it was worse than the organizers of the campaign imagined. The Commission had committed to propose an ambitious revision of EU’s animal welfare legislation in Autumn but backtracked on its commitment following internal differences and external political pressure and lobbying.
Animal welfare was conspicuously absent in Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of Union Speech to the European Parliament on 13 September. Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič deprioritized animal welfare when he was questioned by the European Parliament on 3 October after the European Commission had nominated him in charge of the European Green Deal.
It might have made a difference if there would have been a commissioner for animal welfare already now, Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals, said at the event.
She is still optimistic that the current Commission might change its mind after the delivery of the petition and the overwhelming support the improvement of animal welfare got in a special Eurobarometer last week. Even the Commission acknowledged that the Eurobarometer showed that animal welfare is an important topic for a majority of European citizens.
With no Commissioner in charge of animal welfare, it was easy for the Commission to ignore its commitments and keep silent. “It takes someone to take responsibility,” one MEP said. According to the MEPs present at the event, EU’s backsliding will damage its reputation as a world leader in animal welfare.
The data on the 310,000 signatures was handed-over to the head of unit in charge of animal welfare in the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety who had been working on preparing the legislative package on animal welfare. He welcomed the campaign and promised to bring the petition with the signatures to the attention of the whole Commission.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
