Activities of Manuela RIPA related to 2020/2085(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Implementation report on on-farm animal welfare (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the implementation report on on-farm animal welfare
Amendments (39)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas livestock farming plays a prominent role in EU agricuthe EU industrial animal agricultural model must move away from current practices and adopt regenerative models such as agro-ecology and organic systems that promote a high standard of animal welfare free from malture, as it is not only economically and environmentally, but also culturally highly significant for EU regions; atment, abuse, pain or suffering and promoting the five domains: good nutrition, environment, health, allowing the animals to demonstrate their natural behaviour;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas industrial livestock farming plays a prominent role in EU agriculture, as it is not only economically and environmentally, but also culturally highly significant for EU regionsnd in just over a decade several million farms have ceased to exist, representing over a third of all farms in Europe, of which the vast majority were small family businesses, due to upscaling and intensification of the agricultural system;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas, as significant developments in animal welfare science have taken place since the existing EU farm animal welfare legislation was adopted, it is vital to revise and augment the existing body of animal welfare legislation to bring it into line with the latest scientific advancements and to respond to societal demands for improvement of the welfare of animals and the elimination of outdated livestock housing systems and other production practices that negatively impact their welfare;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas Article 13 TFEU provides that in formulating and implementing inter alia the Union's policies, the Union and the Member States are to pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, since they are sentient beings, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas unhealthy diets, high in salt, sugar, fat and animal protein are a leading risk factor for disease and mortality in Europe; and at the same time antimicrobial resistance, hazardous pesticides and exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals via food and food packaging, are also increased threats to public health;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas EU animal welfare legislation is currently not applicable to marine invertebrates, like crabs and lobsters; whereas several third countries have already included decapod crustaceans in their animal welfare legislation; whereas Switzerland has already implemented a ban on the practice of boiling lobsters alive;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas The Lancet Infectious Diseases Commission has stressed that instead of relying on the routine use of antimicrobials, further effort is required to develop health-orientated systems for the rearing of animals; considers that good health should always be prioritised and integral to the system rather than being propped up by routine use of antimicrobials; whereas it is important to recognise the positive association between good animal welfare and reduced antibiotic use in animals that are well cared for and appropriately housed, are less prone to diseases and infections requiring less antibiotics and other veterinary medicines;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas a diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits, and transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts, whereas global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50% in order to achieve dietary shifts towards less resource-intensive products (more plant based, less refined);
Amendment 34 #
Ac. whereas, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), promotes animal welfare through the ‘One Welfare’ approach recognising the close interlinkage between animal health and welfare and human health and welfare - if an animal is healthy, has enough space, is well nourished, feels safe, is free to express normal patterns of behaviour and does not suffer from feelings such as fear, pain and distress;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas industrial livestock farming results in high greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, air pollution, water contamination and biodiversity loss, and agriculture is responsible for about 90% of EU ammonia emissions, which has significant negative effects on the environment and biodiversity, and is a major contributor to the air pollution that kills 400,000 European citizens each year;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas the Union animal welfare legislation (Council Directive 98/58/EC Council Directive1999/74/EC; Council Directive 2007/43/EC; Council Directive 2008/120/EC of 18 December 2008; Council Directive2008/119/EC; Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005; Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009) is widely acknowledged as being too vague, fragmented, open to interpretation and lacking effective enforcement across the Member States;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
Af. whereas the European Court of Auditors identified significant gaps and a general lack of enforcement of EU animal welfare legislation and practices prohibited under EU law, such as the routine tail docking of pigs continue to be practiced; underlines that in the context of food safety, environment, climate action, animal welfare and equality between Member States, the Commission should ensure full implementation and enforcement of Directives, and that in the event of violations, Member States should impose strong sanctions, starting with the routine docking of piglet tails, which has been outlawed in the EU since 1991;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Recital A g (new)
Recital A g (new)
Ag. whereas the EU Regulation on official controls requires Member States to audit their systems for official inspections on feed and food law and animal health and welfare, and Commission Decision 2006/677/EC sets out guidelines recommending that such audits are conducted at least every five years;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Recital A h (new)
Recital A h (new)
Ah. whereas Thailand, Brazil and Ukraine, account altogether for 90 % of the imports from third countries that have all been subjected to audits by DG SANTE and that highlighted a large number of significant deficiencies in the production process and in observing EU legislation;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Recital A i (new)
Recital A i (new)
Ai. whereas moving away from intensive livestock farming practices towards sustainable, extensive agriculture will deliver an immense reduction in methane emissions from the agricultural sector while also providing benefits for the environment, biodiversity, animal welfare and public health; whereas drastically reducing the number of animals kept in the EU for agriculture is an essential step in this process;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Recital A i (new)
Recital A i (new)
Ai. whereas important changes in animal husbandry are required to reconcile the Union's animal welfare legislation with other EU policies such as the Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Recital A j (new)
Recital A j (new)
Aj. whereas EU farmers, as well as NGOs, have expressed concerns over the economic, social and environmental impacts of imports of cheaply produced chicken meat and misleading labelling of chicken meat processed in the European Union, but originating from third countries; whereas unfair competition and a failure to comply with EU standards places European businesses at a competitive disadvantage;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission’s efforts to consolidate legislation on animal welfare and animal health and ensure that the requirements are clear; stresses that these requirements mustgoal to halve sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture by 2030; stresses that antimicrobial resistance (AMR)is a growing transnational, cross- border public health threat where coordinated EU action on animal welfare should be prioritised; takes note of the Commission’s efforts to consolidate legislation on animal welfare and animal health and ensure that the requirements are clear; stresses that these requirements must include a ban on the use of all cages in EU animal farming by 2027 at the latest; underlines the urgent need for a clear definition animal welfare and of intensive animal farming in the EU legal system should be applied correctly and uniformly throughout the EU and that regular and comprehensive checks on terrestrial and aquatic animal production must be carried out; welcomes the Commission’s planned revision of legislation in this area in 2023 in keeping with the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy; calls on the Commission to urgently revise Council Directive 98/58/EC concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes and Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport to harmonise and integrate animal welfare with the SDGs and Paris Agreement;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Deeply regrets that a number of issues related to Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 are yet to be resolved, including: overcrowding; insufficient headroom; failure to provide the required rest stops, food and water; inadequate ventilation and watering devices; transport in extreme heat; transport of unfit animals; transport of unweaned calves; the need to ascertain the pregnancy status of live animals; the extent to which the journey logs are checked; the ‘mixed’ impact of training, education and certification; and insufficient bedding, as identified by the European Court of Auditors in its Special Report No 31/2018;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Notes that billions of farm animals transported globally on an increasing scale, and in Europe, there are millions of farmed animals caged for part or all of their lives are restricted to small confined spaces making it impossible for those animals to exhibit their natural behaviours; reiterates that the current industrial livestock model that confines thousands of animals into confined spaces, is a major contributing factor to zoonoses; in that regard, considers that the EU needs to move away from the intensification of livestock production towards a more extensive model that priorities the animals health and welfare instead of relying on the routine use of antimicrobials or other hazardous chemicals;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Reiterates the need to regulate specific species that currently remain unprotected by EU animal welfare legislation; respondents underlined the importance of introducing species-specific legislation: for dairy cattle; laying hens, breeders and broilers, beef cattle, pullets, turkeys, ducks geese, farmed rabbits; farmed fish; sheep and goats; calls on Commission to bring forward proposals in that regard;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Notes that large scale industrial fish farming and aquaculture in particular relies heavily on the use of antibiotics to combat infectious diseases as edwardsiellosis, streptococcosis and acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease, which tend to increase with warmer temperatures and threaten food security;
Amendment 102 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the Council’s efforts to promote the development of an EU animal welfare label based on harmonised and technically substantiated criteria; deeply regrets that 24 various animal welfare labelling systems across the EU at farm level reinforce a fragmented and inefficient labelling system; considers that a harmonised coherent labelling methodology that fully integrates animal welfare should provide transparent information on the animal’s quality of life from birth, including live transport and slaughter; recommends that this should include photographic images of the animals that are kept under organic farming, conventional farming and factory farming production methods that clearly and concisely indicate the use of GMOs, antibiotics, pesticides and veterinary medicines in animal production in order to promote fair competition and empower consumers to make informed and sustainable food choices;
Amendment 110 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Recalls the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission found that 9,500 hazardous algae blooms are becoming more frequent through climate change and increased fish farming and aquaculture, fish feed and waste dispersed into the seas is directly causing the proliferation of harmful microalgae blooms, causing fish to die from a lack of oxygen; calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement measures to improve water quality, disease control and to limit stocking densities in aquaculture production in the interests of human health and animal welfare and to take steps to improve the welfare of marine invertebrates, like crabs and lobsters, by including these animals in their animal welfare legislation and harmonised labelling proposal and by banning the practice of boiling these animals alive;
Amendment 114 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission to submit regular reports to Parliament on the implementation and enforcement of the Union animal welfare legislation, identifying gaps and including a breakdown of infringements by Member State, by species and by type of infringement, in relation to the volume of live animal transport per Member State;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Calls on the Commission to bring forward proposals without delay to immediately ban the cruel and unnecessary force-feeding of ducks and geese for the production of foie gras;
Amendment 132 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Draws attention toReiterates the importance of animal welfare during transport and welcomes the establishment of the ANIT committee of inquiry and notes the conclusions of the ECA's Special Report on animal welfare in the EU that recognised that data reported by Member States is not sufficiently complete, consistent, reliable or detailed enough to permit drawing evidence based conclusions on compliance at EU level; calls on the Commission to draw up, a list of operators who have perpetrated repeated and serious breaches, on the basis of inspection and implementation reports; calls on the Commission to publish frequent updates of this list, and also to promote examples of best practice in both transport and governance;
Amendment 140 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to increase control checks and fully implement mandatory due diligence across the entire animal production and supply chain and, to conduct efficient and systematic inspections of animal consignments before loading, in order to halt practices that worsen animal welfare conditions for the transport by land or sea, such as allowing overstocked means of transport or unfit animals to continue long journeys, or permitting the continued use of control posts with inadequate facilities for resting, feeding and watering of animals in transport;
Amendment 153 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to increase control checks to monitor for antibiotics and other banned chemical residues found in imports from non-EU countries as part of the Commission’s strategy to effectively address the unregulated use of antibiotics and pesticides used in animal, seafood and aquaculture production; calls for short, local and regional supply chains and urges the Commission and the Member States to fully consider the CJEU ruling C-424/13 and to propose a complete phase out of the export of live animals to third countries by 2025; promoting alternatives to live animal transport, such as meat-and-carcass and genetic material transport for exports and intra-EU trade;
Amendment 162 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the fact that the common agricultural policy (CAP) seeks to enhance the welfare of on-farm animals by providing financial incentives and by focusing on the enforcement of animal welfare legislation; calls on the Member States toregrets that only 2% of EU rural development funding has been used to promote animal welfare standards beyond minimum standards; calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt measures to end overcrowded, barren sheds; and to rigorously enforce on-farm animal welfare legislation with strong sanctions including the withdrawal of CAP or other EU funds for non- compliance; calls on the Member States to be required to specify concrete actions for improving animal welfare in their CAP Strategic Plans, including ending the use of cages in animal farming and requiring greater accessibility to fresh air, natural daylight, environmental enrichment, shelter and shade for all on-farm species and offer greater and effective support, including financial incentives to farmers who voluntarily comply with more stringent animal welfare requirements, including through national support programmes;
Amendment 173 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Reminds the Commission and the Member States that CAP funds and national envelopes should be appropriately directed to assist farmers in the transition to cage-free, high animal welfare, ecological farming methods with high quality training provided where required to ensure the welfare of the animals and the environmental and financial health that will help to ensure a resilient and sustainable economy;
Amendment 177 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Underlines the key role that the EU should play in supporting the development of agro-ecological and plant- based agricultural practices;
Amendment 194 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Points out that individual management practices often have a greater influence on animal welfare than rules alone; calls on the Commission to adopt a more output-oriented approach to future projects; recognises that the DG SANTE audits serve as an important source of information for the Commission to assess the implementation of the current framework; calls on the Commission to increase the number of independent, unannounced spot inspections by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) focused on animal welfare and the transport of animals; believes that differing methods of data collection and control mechanisms make it difficult to establish an accurate picture of compliance in individual Member States;
Amendment 201 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the importance of regular exchanges with representatives of national authorities, civil society, agricultural stakeholder organisations and experts concerning examples of good practice and possible improvements in the area of animal welfare; points out that, despite its low cost, knowledge transfer in this area is highly efficient and should therefore be put into practice more quickly.; considers that the Commission and the Member States should reinforce controls performed at borders on animal food imports from third countries to make sure these imports comply with EU legislation on animal welfare, food safety and the environment; stresses that imports from countries with lower environmental, social, food safety and animal welfare standards have increased;
Amendment 208 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recommends that EU trade agreements should only grant trade preferences for animal-based products on the condition that they respect all EU relevant animal welfare standards, including standards currently not applied to imported products (“conditional liberalisation”); recommends that trade agreements allocate sufficient resources to the implementation of provisions on animal welfare cooperation and include an article on “Sustainable Agriculture, Seafood and Aquaculture” in the“Trade and Sustainable Development” Chapters; calls further on the Commission to ensure that all trade agreements are fully compatible with the European Green Deal, the Paris Agreement, the EU's biodiversity commitments and the SDGs, and that, in case of non-compliance, there should be binding and enforceable sanctions;
Amendment 217 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls on the Commission, in its bilateral trade negotiations with third countries, to ensure compliance with the EU’s animal welfare rules and defend sustainable development, within the framework of the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT ) 1994 and in particular, Article XX which lays down exceptions for measures connected to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources, and Article XXa that includes animal welfare under ‘reasons of public morality’; calls on the Commission, to promote similar measures in existing EU trade and investment agreements to ensure that imported animal, fish and aquaculture products have been produced in line with the EU environmental, social, food safety and animal welfare standards in order to ensure a fair and level playing field for EU producers;
Amendment 243 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 i (new)
Paragraph 6 i (new)
6i. Calls for Council Directive 2008/120/EC laying down minimum standards for the protection of pigs to be revised to inter alia remove the 28-day exemption for confining sows in individual stalls and to ensure that the animals are kept in group housing throughout the entire gestation period and farrowing;
Amendment 254 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 q (new)
Paragraph 6 q (new)
6q. Notes that large livestock farms with more than 50 livestock units account for about 70% of agricultural methane emissions, and 40% of total anthropogenic methane emissions in the EU; underlines that this makes mega livestock farms one of the biggest sources of methane emissions in the EU; emphasises that in addition to their methane emissions, mega livestock farms are extremely harmful for animal welfare, public health and the environment; stresses that this demonstrates an urgent need to swiftly phase out intensive animal agriculture in the EU, including a ban on the development of new mega livestock farms; calls on the Commission to put forward concrete and binding measures targeting the industrial livestock sector;
Amendment 258 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 u (new)
Paragraph 6 u (new)
6u. Stresses that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that industrial farming practices, by keeping animals in close proximity to each other, pose a huge risk for the emergence of new pandemics;