Under the leadership of the German Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner, Germany is leading the way in the European animal welfare strategy. Until now, member states were allowed to give their own interpretation to EU directives, but will that remain the case?
For years, the German Ministry of Agriculture has been trying to raise animal welfare standards by means of an animal welfare label, which is directed by the state. This has led, among other things, to legislation banning local anesthesia for castration from 1 January, while this remains permitted in the Netherlands for the time being. The German government also wants to set requirements for the housing of fattening pigs, which are not yet the standard in the Netherlands. Klöckner also wants to impose increasingly strict requirements on animal transport over long distances, especially under tropical conditions such as in August this year.
Islands in the EU
POV chairman Linda Janssen recently emphasized that there must be room for policy that is determined by the member states themselves and not imposed by the European Union. But the German government and the German livestock sector agree that animal welfare 'islands' within the EU must end.
At the same time, it is also realized that the German livestock sector could be shooting itself in the foot with an overly binding German animal welfare legislation. For example, by restricting the import of German and Danish piglets to such an extent that the cost price for German finishing pigs will rise sharply as a result of having to impose German piglets. The Association of Piglet Propagators in the North German Schleswig Holstein recently issued a statement about this.
The German government realizes that the standard cannot be raised without additional yield for the livestock farmer. This realization was also widely shared in the European Council of Agriculture Ministers, as it turned out on 1 September during consultations in Koblenz, Germany. Klöckner also emphasized in a press conference afterwards that the European Union cannot unilaterally tighten up the animal welfare standard without setting the same requirements for meat from outside the European Union and thus price itself out of the market in world trade. Klöckner's position in European animal welfare policy is supported by the French government.
EU wants better compliance with existing rules
After the council meeting in Koblenz last week, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janus Wojciechowski, emphasized the great importance of complying with the existing rules. Animal welfare is certainly one of the themes in its European Farm-to-Fork strategy.
A review of the current animal welfare regulations is planned for 2023, but Wojciechowski plans to conduct this review earlier. By emphasizing compliance with existing rules, the EU is clearly taking a different position than Germany in animal welfare policy, political analysts say.
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