Letter to UK MEPs on animal welfare legislation

Together with four colleagues from other political groups, I launched a written declaration two months ago on the welfare of pigs urging Member States to respect for the deadline for the implementation of the ban on individual sow stalls set on 1st January 2013.

The actual text of the written declaration is slightly outdated already as we have now received new data on the Member States which expect to comply and those who will fall short. The figures are slightly better, but still clearly insufficient if we want EU rules on animal welfare to be respected by all European farmers and be credible to consumers and our trading partners.

The new data shows that three Member States will definitely be fully compliant (UK, Sweden, Luxembourg), ten expect to comply on time (Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia) but at least eleven will fail to meet the deadline (Greece, Slovenia, Spain, Poland, Finland, Austria, Latvia, Italy, Cyprus, France, Portugal)

We need to put pressure on these countries now to safeguard what is left of our own credibility in making legislation in this area.

If you want to help us in our fight for respect of EU standards on animal welfare, please sign written declaration number 6 this week. Please encourage your colleagues to do the same.

Many thanks in advance for your support, I really hope that this is something that UK MEPs can have one united voice.