Animal welfare warning to EU applicants

Date: 27/04/2000

By Renée Cordes

THE European Commission is set to clamp down on countries bidding to join the EU which are failing to implement minimum welfare standards governing the transport of farm animals.

Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne is to write to the applicant countries in central and eastern Europe in the next few days urging them to enforce the rules laid down in the Union's 1998 animal transport directive as swiftly as possible. Under these rules, animals must be rested, fed and watered every eight hours and are entitled to a 24-hour rest at the end of the journey.

'Of course we cannot ask countries to implement all animal welfare rules before accession, but we will ask them to implement some essential elements,' said an official.

The move comes amid growing concern that horses and other farm animals transported over long distances from well beyond the Union's eastern borders are not being properly fed, watered or rested during the journey. A Commission inspection two years ago found that many lorries transporting animals for more than eight hours did not have adequate facilities, as required under the EU legislation, and criticised Poland in particular for failing to ensure animals were properly cared for during long journeys.

Some of the applicant countries agreed to bolster the conditions in which animals are moved in an informal accord struck earlier this month, but the Commission has warned that it intends to monitor compliance with this pledge very closely. 'We have a very inflexible attitude

on this. This is a big priority for the Commissioner,' said an official.

Byrne is also leading a campaign to strengthen the EU's existing animal welfare legislation and plans to set out his ideas in a White Paper due to be unveiled by June. He is expected to call not only for the 1998 animal transport directive to be bolstered, but also for new Union-wide standards to be laid down to govern the keeping of laying hens, calves and pigs.

'Animal welfare is an issue of huge concern to European citizens,' Byrne told consumer group representatives recently, adding that there was scope for improvement both in the existing EU legislation and in enforcement of the rules by member states.

Animal welfare groups have welcomed the Commission's attempts to force central and eastern European enlargement candidates to improve animal welfare conditions and insist that the move is long overdue.

'We have been arguing for some time that there are problems with the shipment of animals from eastern Europe,' said David Wilkins, director of the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare. 'We do not see why all countries who want to join the EU should not do something in advance to comply with these standards.'

The European Commission is set to clamp down on countries bidding to join the EU which are failing to implement minimum welfare standards governing the transport of farm animals.