EUforAnimals.Will the European Union have a commissioner for animal welfare in 2024?

The #EUforAnimals campaign has reached 173 thousand signatures, including those of 182 MEPs:the target is a commissioner for animal welfare.

• The #EUforAnimals campaign, launched in March 2021, calls for the establishment of a European Commissioner for Animal Welfare.
• In June 2022 Animal Equality, Animal Law Italia and several MEPs have reiterated Italy's membership.

And if the next European legislature also had a commissioner for animal welfare, with a clear and explicit mandate for the protection of all animals in European countries, contrary to what happens today?

This is what the campaign is asking for #EUforAnimals, launched in March 2021 byBelgian organization Gaia and quickly became international, to the point that signatures collected by the petition are now 173 thousand throughout Europe.And as proof that European citizens agree, there is also a survey conducted in June last year by Ipsos which shows that the 69 percent of Europeans would welcome the introduction of the role of European Commissioner for Animal Welfare.

There are too many scandals involving animals bred for food

To reiterate Italy's support for the request, at the headquarters of representation of the EU Parliament in Italy in Rome, have also been in recent days Animal Equality, Animal Law Italy and several Italian and foreign MEPs, including the first signatory of theAnd questionoral actions presented to the European parliament, the Danish Niels Fuglsgang. “In recent years we have witnessed too many scandals involving people animals exploited for food, like the story of the hundreds of animals transported by ship and left to die for months in the open sea – Fuglsgang recalled –.But no one has so far taken responsibility in this regard, which is why a European commissioner for animal welfare is essential."

The reference is to what happened last year, when two ships loaded with cattle, almost 2,500 in total, remained for over three months off the coast of the Mediterranean, rejected by ports across Europe due to a outbreak of bluetongue.

Some move, some don't

Last January one oral question for the nomination of a European commissioner explicitly in charge of animal welfare, presented by Fuglsgang, was the most signed among those presented by European parliamentarians in this legislature and beyond, with 118 subscriptions:Despite this, the question was never scheduled.In April the second attempt:127 signatures, no scheduling.

Yet, to date well 182 MEPs – that is, two thirds of the entire European Parliament –, in addition to the 173 signatories of the petition, have expressed their support for the #EUforAnimals campaign, promoted by more than forty animal protection organizations across the EU, of which nine are Italian:Animal Equality, Animal Law Italy, Ciwf Italy, Enpa, Italian Federation for the defense of animal rights and the environment, Humane society Italy, Lav, Italian League for the defense of animals and the environment, Oipa.

Despite this, many Italian MEPs are still missing from the roll call - 56 out of 76 total – which, as the European coordinator of #EUforAnimals says Adolfo Sansolini, last month voted against the amendment presented by the Greens and the Left to the report on the animal welfare directive "which would have eliminated forever a shameful practice such as that of force-feeding geese and ducks to produce Foie gras”:although it is already banned in 22 EU countries, the report states that "the production of foie gras is based on breeding procedures that respect animal welfare criteria".

While animal welfare is close to the hearts of European citizens, therefore, the attention it received in Brussels has fluctuated depending on the priorities of the commission in office at the time.For theGreen MEP Eleonora Evi “We must say enough to the systematic violations of animal welfare rules that are committed every day in the European Union:from the transport of live animals to the production of foie gras, the time has come for Europe to give concrete responses to a sick production and food system which considers animals only as commodities."

Second Matteo Cupi, president of Animal Equality, “animals deserve a different life from the one that the intensive farming industry reserves for them.For years as Animal Equality we have continued to show the truth behind farms because we know that it is essential to never divert attention from these issues.Countering those who exploit the planet's animals and resources is a priority:institutions and politics must take responsibility for this dystopian system and intervene to radically change it."

Objective 2024

After all, #EUforAnimals "is a campaign about hypocrisy, because today there are many European directives that are ignored due to a lack of controls", explains Sansolini:the responsibility for animal rights, in fact, has passed over the years from the Agriculture commission to a specific department of the Health commission, the Directorate of crisis preparedness in the food sector, animal and vegetable, “finally recognizing that animals are not tomatoes.But now we want a turning point:a commission that evaluates, updates and implements animal protection regulations".Responsibility, in the current context, would become entirely of health commissioner, food safety and animal welfare, a position held today (for the health and food safety part only) by the Cypriot Stella Kyriakides.

The current commission, adds Sansolini, "is much more active than the others", but the next one will be the decisive one:#EUforAnimals will ask all parties to include in their election programs for European Championships in 2024 the commitment to make "animal welfare" explicit in the nomenclature of the next commission, and to ask the respective European groups to do the same.