Agriculture and Fisheries Council held a debate on animal welfare

The Agriculture and Fisheries Council held a debate on animal welfare on the basis of a position paper prepared by the German, Swedish, Danish and Netherlands delegations. The paper calls for an EU platform on animal welfare to be established for stakeholders and competent authorities. The council broadly supported the establishment of an EU-platform. Some member states noted that, given the current high level of EU standards for animal welfare, equal treatment should be ensured for EU and non-EU producers, and that priority should be given to improving the enforcement of existing legislation.

Some of the objectives of the EU platform could be to:

• facilitate the exchange of experiences and best practices;
• give visibility to initiatives carried out to promote animal welfare;
• develop partnerships amongst stakeholders;
• identify best practices in member states;
• allow networking, including the sharing of knowledge and information on research and development;
• boost stakeholders' commitment to contribute to the promotion of animal welfare;
• discuss the strengthening of animal welfare standards and the improvement of animal welfare legislation.