The campaign for appointing a European Commissioner with responsibility for animal welfare in the EU in the job title is gaining traction among the public and MEPs in the European Parliament following a webinar in June.
The webinar, organized by The Brussels Times and live-streamed from the Parliament, was presented by GAIA, Belgium's leading animal rights organisation, and followed by 270,000 viewers. Since its launch in March 2021 until now, the #EUforAnimals campaign for an animal welfare Commissioner has been signed by 278,000 people across the EU and is supported by over 60 animal welfare organisations across Europe.
The collection of signatures will probably be finalised by the end of October. The campaign should be concluded with the appointment of the new European Commission in 2024, if it goes as planned.
A proof of the support for improving animal welfare is that the majority of successful European Citizens Initiatives (ECI) has been dedicated to animal welfare issues. An ECI requires a minimum number of 1 million signatories in at least seven member states. In this case there was no need for an ECI as the proposal for an animal welfare Commissioner does not require any legislative change.
“It’s possible if there is political will,” underlined Adolfo Sansolini, advisor to Eurogroup for Animals and GAIA. The European Commission will propose an ambitious revision of EU’s animal welfare legislation in Autumn and could clearly need a dedicated Commissioner for animal welfare already now but he understands that it is hardly possible by the end of the current Commission.
The proposal is clearly linked to the on-going revision of animal welfare legislation, Danish MEP Niels Fuglsang (S&D) told The Brussels Times. “Many proposals have been postponed for years despite the impossibility of fully enforcing obsolete rules like the ones on live animal transport, often mentioning lack of resources as an excuse for not acting.”
Today a small unit (SANTE G.3) with limited resources is in charge of animal welfare, Sansolini said at the webinar. The unit is hardly visible in the organisation chart of Directorate-General for Health and Food Security in the Commission. “Let’s go for 2024. It doesn’t require any treaty change, only good will among the political party groups, as in other policy areas.”
As previously reported, it all started in January 2022 when a number of MEPs across the political party groups tabled a question to the European Commission asking for the appointment of a Commissioner in charge of animal welfare.
In fact, two oral questions were tabled in 2022, one in January with 118 signatures, and an identical one in April with 127 signatures, which made it one of the most-signed oral questions ever. In parallel, 190 MEPs have expressed their support to the campaign. Despite the high number of signatures, the Conference of Presidents failed to schedule a plenary discussion within the 3-month deadline.
A plenary debate was finally held in March this year. Although oral questions can lead to a vote on a resolution too, this option did not gather enough support in the Conference of Presidents, where only S&D, the Greens and the Left supported it. According to Fuglsang, the Renew vote allowed at least a Commission Statement (without a resolution) “on long-term EU institutional commitment to animal welfare”.
Why has the Commission not answered the petition yet?
“Initially the Commissioner for Health and Food Security, Stella Kyriakides, stated that integrating animal welfare into her job title was not important because political will matters more,” Fuglesang explained. “This position was not credible because it could apply to everything. We have European Commissioners on many topics to guarantee that they receive adequate attention and resources.”
“More recently, she has said that we are too close to the end of her mandate to change the job title and it’s not up to her to tell the next Commission what to do. In fact, this Commission is sending many signals to the next one, so the proposal to integrate animal welfare in the job title of the next Commissioner should be one of them.”
Animals are sentient beings
In their petition, the MEPs noted that Art 13 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU recognises animals as sentient beings. EU legislation on animal welfare has been elaborated since 1974, but the approach of the EU institutions has been inconsistent, resulting in poor enforcement on various fronts.
“A dedicated Commissioner responsible for animal welfare should receive more influence and powers in the EU institutions on this topic whose importance has been clearly acknowledged by this Commission,” according to the signatories. A survey in 10 EU member states showed that ca 70 % of the respondents were in favour of a Commissioner specifically in charge of animal welfare.
The current Commissioner for Health and Food Security is engaged in animal welfare but this was not always the case in the past and might change again in next Commission if the issue is not regularized, according to the MEPs. The new Commissioner’s responsibility would become “Health, Food Safety and Animal Welfare”.
What should the Commissioner do?
“We need a coherent and holistic approach to animal welfare in the EU, backed up by resources,” underlined Luxembourgian MEP Tilly Metz (Greens/EFA). “EU citizens are demanding it and want animal welfare rules to be respected and enforced. Appointing a Commissioner with responsibility for animal welfare would send a strong signal to all stakeholders and would be consistent with the treaty.”
An animal welfare Commissioner would speak up for animals and give them a voice, she added. The Commissioner would not only ensure enforcement of current and new animal welfare rules but also act pro-actively and take initiatives to fill loopholes in the legislation. Metz also expects that a dedicated Commissioner for animal welfare will “mainstream” it in all EU legislation where necessary.
Currently, enforcement is lax and sanctions (infringement procedures) against member states that are violating them are not effective. “It’s strange that other policy areas, such as competition, are better protected than animal welfare,” said French MEP Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL). “We need a counter weight against big agri-business and their lobbying.”
What can EU citizens do?
The European Parliament has a say in the approval of the next Commission following the European elections in June next year. The new Commission president proposed by the European Council must be approved by a majority of the Parliament. The candidate Commissioners are interviewed by the Parliament which votes on their suitability, both individually and as a whole.
The new Parliament should condition its approval of the Commission on the appointment of a Commissioner for Animal Welfare, Aubry said. The voters in the elections to the European Parliament can also influence the outcome. Fuglsand proposed that EU citizens should ask candidates to the Parliament if they support animal welfare and the campaign for an Animal Welfare Commissioner.
What was the main take-away from the webinar?
“The proposal to integrate animal welfare into the job title of the competent EU Commissioner is now firmly on the table,” Fuglsand summarized. “It has wide cross-party support, and even large retailers start saying publicly that it’s an essential condition to support improvements in the way animals are treated in Europe.”
“This will also have a global impact determined by our influence in the world. All national and European parties must somehow respond to this appeal. I’ll do my best to achieve the inclusion of this point in the manifesto of The Party of European Socialists (PES) for next year’s European elections”
In the past, he tried to transform the petition into a proposal for a plenary resolution in the Parliament but it did not achieve a majority in the Conference of Presidents to make it happen. “This shows how important it is in the next European elections that citizens vote for candidates in all parties who are genuinely supportive of animal welfare and don’t just talk about it.”
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
