Policy departs from ‘brilliant’ roadmap

Plans for animal health policy for 2007-13 have upset campaigners.

Sonja Van Tichelen, director of Eurogroup, which campaigns for the protection and well-being of animals, calls the EU’s 2006-10 animal welfare action plan "a brilliant road map". The action plan is the first ever attempt to improve the protection of animals in every area - from farms to laboratory tests.

But she sees problems ahead later this month, when the Commission proposes a separate update on the Community Animal Health Policy, to cover the period 2007-13.

The different timelines of the two policies is just the tip of the iceberg, says Van Tichelen. "One of the big EU problems has been linking these two areas of health and welfare together," she explains. "It’s strange that this has not happened, since you cannot have one without the other."

"As a result, I think you’ll see we will not have the desired outcome in either."

Eurogroup wants a revision of new animal transport rules. This legislation, which came into force in January, revises animal welfare rules for the loading, unloading and handling of animals on long road journeys.

But it does not set new standards for travelling times or stocking densities, after member states failed to approve this section of the original Commission proposal.

"We want to see complementary rules on journey times," explains Van Tichelen, "not a review as such."

Markos Kyprianou, the European health commissioner, has promised to examine the issue again before the end of his mandate in 2009. He has also described the protection and welfare of animals as "crucial, not least for ethical and moral reasons but also to ensure animal health and the quality of food".

But the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV) says that there is no easy solution. A UECBV report on animal transport warns that reducing the number of animals carried in each vehicle, as well as increasing vehicle size, will increase the risk of animals falling or injuring each other.

Any reduction in journey times or increase in the number of compulsory stops will make the journey longer and more tiring for drivers, according to the UECBV.

"Man must remain at the centre of this [animal transport] discussion," says the report. "We have to remain reasonable and keep our values in the right order."

Plans for animal health policy for 2007-13 have upset campaigners.