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Published 05/12/2019
Today, over 160 organisations, representing the views of over one million people from all across Europe have sent an open letter to EU leaders, calling on them to ensure that the EU stops lagging behind in animal welfare legislation and ends the use of cages in farming.
We drew the attention of the new EU Commissioners to the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative, which has, subject to validation, broken the record for balanced representation of voices across the EU, having surpassed the minimum threshold required by EU law in 21 EU Member States – a first in the history of European Citizens’ Initiatives. This direct democracy tool has also collected over 1.6 million signatures!
The letter welcomes EU Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, and Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, who just entered office and will be shaping relevant laws and policies for farm animals.
We called on the Commissioners to introduce legislation to end the inhumane practice of farming animals in cages. We also called for a move to farming systems that will be in a position to combat against the climate breakdown, reverse the biodiversity loss, fix the public health crisis, transition away from cages, and – of course – reduce animal suffering.
This European Citizens’ Initiative is the biggest political push in the history of farm animal welfare. We will continue campaigning to ensure that the new European Commissioners will set a fresh and progressive tone to EU policy-making and prove to the world that the EU is really the leader in farm animal welfare, as they claim.
