Greens/EFA welcome stricter animal transport regulations
Today, the European Commission published the revision of the Animal Transport Regulation. The Greens/EFA has long pushed for this, and welcome the Commission revision. However, the proposed measures are not enough. It’s long overdue to significantly raise EU standards for animal transports.
Tilly Metz, Greens/EFA MEP, President of the European Parliament's Animal Welfare Intergroup and former Chair of the Animal Transport Inquiry Committee, comments:
"This proposal to reform the Animal Transport Regulation is long overdue and welcome. It is a victory for us Greens and animal welfare activists. The Greens/EFA has been vocal on this issue for years, and succeeded in setting up a committee of inquiry on animal transport. The European Commission's proposal takes up some of the recommendations made by the European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry and should lead to better application of the legislation in Europe, in particular with clearer rules and definitions on transport times. But there is still room for improvements in sea transport, exports to third countries, and long transition periods of these new rules, and the fact that there is no limit for sea journey time is disappointing."
“For years, systematic violations during transport have led to unbearable suffering for millions of animals. With the proposal published today, the Commission is responding to the demands of EU citizens, but unfortunately the proposed measures do not go far enough. The Greens/EFA will use the coming months before the elections to raise the bar much higher when it comes to animal welfare during transport and to improve the proposal in a way that makes a real difference to the outdated rules."
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From September 2020 to December 2021, the European Parliament held a special committee of enquiry into possible breaches of the European Regulation on the protection of animals during transport. Back in May 2020, the European Commission announced in the Farm-to-Fork Strategy that it intended to present a proposal for a revised animal transport regulation in 2023, as well as on three other topics (animal welfare labeling, welfare of farmed animals and the slaughter of animals). Apart from the publication of the proposal to revise the rules for animal transport, everything else has been postponed until further notice and thus left to the next European Commission and the MEPs of the next legislative period after the European elections in June 2024.
