Animal welfare: Europe must better promote good practices and propose ambitious but realistic changes

While animal welfare is a growing public concern and has always been a concern for most farmers, the European Parliament, meeting on 16 February in plenary session in Strasbourg, followed the advice of its rapporteur Jérémy Decerle (Renaissance, France) who believes the legislative scrubland on this matter must first be clarified.

Its report, which deals with the welfare of farm animals and is based on a study carried out by the research service of the European Parliament and on a rather exhaustive series of interviews, highlights a very disparate respect of the legislation in force, therefore encourages to first ensure that what exists is better applied. He recommends that in a second step, an update of the European rules can make them more understandable and sometimes more adaptable, in particular to a species-by-species approach.

"This report is a step forward for animal welfare," said Jérémy Decerle. A priority for Renew Europe, which was widely adopted in the report, is that these good practices in well-being can finally be fairly and sufficiently valued and remunerated. Farmers must not bear the burden of our ambitions alone, however desirable they may be.

The strong message that we are also sending to the Commission through this report is the absolute need to finally ensure reciprocity of our standards, in the context of our trade.

“Let’s make sure we don’t outsource the animal welfare issue. What we demand of our breeders must mirror those who export their products to our market. It is about respecting our breeders, who are already doing a lot and are ready to do even more. It is also about respecting the expectations of our consumers," explained Decerle.

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