EU's Shocking Betrayal of Democracy and Animal Welfare
Meat lobby thwarts regulation supported by 89% of EU citizens
In late 2023, something outrageous happened in the EU — but many haven’t even noticed. With new developments unfolding and EU elections around the corner, it is the right time to bring this important story to everyone’s attention.👇
EU legislation can be very complex and bureaucratic, and this case is no exception. What exactly happened? Let me break it down for you in simple terms:
Timeline of the scandal
2014-2017:
EU citizens’ initiative aims to ban the use of cages in animal farming
An alliance of 170 NGOs joins forces to develop the historic EU citizens’ initiative ‘End the Cage Age’, which aims to prohibit the cruel practice of caging sows, hens, calves, rabbits, pullets, broilers, quails, ducks, and geese.
As the initiative writes, “Hundreds of millions of EU farm animals are kept in cages for most of their lives, causing great suffering. We call on the European Commission to end this inhumane treatment of farm animals. Cages inflict suffering on enormous numbers of farm animals every year. They are cruel and unnecessary, as higher-welfare cage-free systems are viable.”
According to the Brussels Times, “About half of all egg-laying hens, and nearly all rabbits, are forced into miniscule cages, the floor size of which is roughly equivalent to an A4 sheet of paper. The great majority of mother pigs spend approximately half of their short lives inside crates or stalls so small that they cannot even stand and turn around.”
2019:
1.4 million Europeans sign the initiative
In a huge success, the ‘End the Cage Age’ initiative is signed by 1.4 million EU citizen. It is one of only nine successful initiatives since this tool for participatory democracy was introduced 13 years ago!
June 10, 2021:
The initiative is strongly endorsed by the European Parliament
The initiative gains broad political support, being endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament (558 votes in favor, 37 against, 85 abstentions).
In its official statement, the parliament highlights that “alternatives to cage farming exist” and asks the EU Commission to propose legislation to ban the practice of caging farmed animals. It demands that these rules are also applied to all animal products imported to the EU.
As the citizens initiative writes, “This was a groundbreaking announcement that sparked hope towards animal welfare, and also towards the power of democracy within the EU.”
June 30, 2021:
The EU Commission promises to implement the initiative
The EU Commission makes a firm commitment to meet citizens’ demands and deliver a legislative proposal to ban cages across the EU by the end of 2023.
The Commission writes: “This will be included as one of the key objectives of the revision of animal welfare legislation that the Commission has committed to propose by the last quarter of 2023.”
This is historic: Reflecting the importance of the topic, ‘End the Cage Age’ is the first Citizen’s Initiative ever to have received a firm commitment from the EU Commission to change the law according to the campaign’s demands.
Jan 21, 2022:
Research reveals massive public support for updating animal welfare law
The EU Commission conducts a 3-month public consultation on the planned revision of the animal welfare legislation, collecting 59,281 responses from EU citizens and organizations.
An overwhelming majority (92%) of the respondents say that current EU laws do not ensure adequate animal welfare.
93% of the respondents say that the use of cages should be phased out within a maximum of 5 years.
89-95% of the respondents support additional restrictions regarding animal mutilation, live transport, and slaughter methods, as well as animal welfare labeling on food products.
March 2023:
EU study again confirms overwhelming public support for ending caged farming
The official Eurobarometer study with 26,376 participants across all 27 EU countries finds that 89% of respondents want laws to ensure that animals are not kept in individual cages.
From an ethical and democratic perspective, this looks like a very clear case so far. Doesn’t it?
In times of extreme political polarization, where it seems virtually impossible to get widespread consensus on anything, here is finally an issue where a vast majority of the population agrees.
As Lighthouse Reports observes: “If there is one issue that seems to unite the citizens of the European Union, it is animal welfare.”
Isn’t that encouraging? Isn’t that reason to celebrate?
What a huge, exciting, and urgently needed milestone for both animal welfare — and democracy!
BUT THEN, the last quarter of 2023 comes …
Sept 13, 2023:
The EU Commission BREAKS its promise and suddenly goes silent on caged farming
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suddenly reveals in her State of the Union speech that the EU is shelving its promised ban on caged farming.
Over two years have passed since the Commission’s historic pledge to free animals from their cages — valuable time that could have been used for meaningful progress.
But von der Leyen doesn’t even provide an explanation for dropping the urgently needed animal welfare measures. News outlets highlight the “deafening silence of the European Commission”.
Dec 7, 2023:
The EU shelves more animal welfare measures
Unbelievably, things get even worse: In December, it becomes evident that the EU Commission is also dropping or delaying other crucial animal welfare regulations that have long been expected. These relate to the slaughtering of day-old chicks and a ban on fur farming and sales across the EU.
Since the EU Commission is now at odds with its own commitment AND public consensus, these developments beg one important question:
Why THE F*** is this happening?
We will return to this question below — but let’s first focus on the immediate reaction by involved stakeholders.
Understandably, there is enormous disappointment and outrage. Here are three example statements from experts in the matter:
“This Commission promised to deliver on EU citizens’ express will and revise the outdated and unscientific EU legislation on animal welfare. After years of work on this file, [the Commission] today gave no explicit indication that the revision will be published and instead insisted it is a ‘complicated matter’. It’s not. The science is there, the work has been done, and EU citizens have spoken. Anything short of delivery would show a blatant disregard for the suffering of millions of animals as well as EU democratic process.”
— Isabel Paliotta, Policy Officer for Sustainable Food Systems,
European Environmental Bureau
“What happened today is scandalous. The European Commission has gone back on its word to give animals a life worth living, (...) killing the new animal welfare laws by delaying, (...) The ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative is the only Initiative to have received a firm commitment for action, even though this democratic tool has been in existence for over a decade. Failure to keep this commitment is a clear failure of democracy and a show of disdain for civic engagement.”
— Olga Kikou, European Affairs Manager & Head of the EU office,
Compassion in World Farming
“The Commission announced (…) that this generational revision would happen before the end of the mandate, and yet this communication shows, at present, they are set to fail to deliver. It is extremely disappointing that they have not honoured their word. (...) any failure from the von der Leyen Commission to present proposed measures to phase out caged farming systems, in-line with the successful End the Cage Age citizens’ initiative, raises serious questions over the [European Citizen Initiative] as a democratic tool.”
— Joe Moran, Director of European Policy Office,
FOUR PAWS International
But let’s get back to the most important question here: After overwhelming support by both the public and the European Parliament for ending caged farming, what on Earth made the EU Commission go from strong support and firm commitment to awkward silence?
Shockingly, investigations have revealed that there has been heavy involvement by lobbyists of the meat industry.
‘Big Meat’ lobby efforts
According to Anja Hazekamp, the vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, powerful farming lobbies fought “hard and dirty” against the ban of cages in livestock farming. The animal industry reportedly engaged in a “carefully crafted campaign to undermine science, co-opt a journalist and pressure officials at the EU to abandon these improvements.”
“Industry fought really hard and dirty on this file. They tried everything they could think of because they know we desperately need animal welfare legislation to make our food system more sustainable and humane, and this was their last chance. They don’t want to change, but see that change is inevitable so they’re getting desperate. They will do anything to save their skins.”
— Anja Hazekamp, Vice-chair,
European Parliament’s Environment Committee
Investigations have revealed that agri-business lobbyists …
‘targeted senior levels in the Commission’ at strategic moments in the legislative process ‘using privileged channels’ (The Guardian)
took measures to ‘water down parts of the laws and attack scientific opinions they felt did not align with their goals.’ (Lighthouse Reports)
attacked Western Europeans’ tendency to “humanise animals a bit too much” (Green Queen)
put an “environmental journalist” in the pay of the meat industry who expressed the willingness to deploy new and more aggressive US-style campaigning tactics to the EU (Lighthouse Reports)
As brilliantly summarized by the Brussels Times:
“While Europeans hope the EU delivers on its promise to ban cages for farmed animals, the Big Agriculture lobby is banking on junk science to thwart progress. Last week, it launched yet another attack on the movement to end caged farming in the EU. In research commissioned by Copa-Cogeca, representing European farmers and agri-cooperatives, industry-selected scientists have cherry-picked outdated and disputed scientific studies, ignoring established facts, with the goal of scare-mongering politicians into believing that a ban on cages would result in food shortages. In fact, their economic forecast is based on faulty assumptions, which conflict with the best available data in animal welfare science.”
Despite severe public criticism, the ‘Big Meat’ influence campaign seems to have been successful
According to reports, attitudes in the EU Commission towards the ban on caged farming became “extremely negative” after the meat industry’s influence campaign.
An insider from the EU decision-making body for agriculture describes a toxic environment that strongly discouraged even the statement of simple facts, such as “Agriculture has a large share in producing greenhouse gases”.
An EU official also stated that “this was the first time” they have experienced such pressure from a farming association.
Good news: You can do something about it!
Admittedly, there is no simple solution to reverse political decisions and bust powerful lobby groups. But there are three things you can do to help the animals and punish those responsible for the above betrayal of democracy:
Avoid all animal products. Punish the lying animal industry by stopping to buy their products. The cruel practice of squeezing farmed animals into tiny cages is just one of dozens of powerful reasons to reject this industry. Besides reducing harm to animals, avoiding animal products helps humanity and is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the planet. To multiply your impact, encourage your friends to follow suit!
Vote left / green. The European right is “hostile to any improvement in animal welfare”. Investigations have shown that the European People’s Party (EPP) and other groups on the right side of the political spectrum have voted against improving animal welfare. Greens/EFA and The Left voted consistently in support of measures to improve animal welfare. If you are an EU citizen and want to help the animals, make sure to participate in this year’s EU elections (6-9 June 2024) and vote left or green - and tell others to do the same!
Build public pressure! The campaigners of “End the Cage Age” have challenged the EU Commission over their failure to deliver on their animal welfare promises. Support the ongoing legal action and help build public pressure on the EU by sharing this post on social media.👇
Stay tuned
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