End the cage age: the European Parliament supports the campaign

No more animals locked up in cages on farms. 1.4 million EU citizens are asking for it, and now the European institutions are asking for it too.

End the cage age, a European Citizens’ Initiative

To date, 300 million farm animals in Europe are locked up in cages . We are talking about hens, sows, rabbits, geese, quail which are prevented from moving and behaving according to nature, considering them as pure and simple commodities.

170 associations in 28 European countries – 20 Italian ones – have decided that the time has come to leave this model behind. From here begins End the cage age; not a simple online petition but a European Citizens’ Initiative , an instrument of participatory democracy envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty.

To be presented to the bodies of the Union, an ICE must collect at least one million signatures. “End the cage age” is one of the very few to have largely exceeded this threshold, totaling 1.4 million . And also marking a triumph in institutional settings.

Parliament and the Commission respond to the appeal

On 10 June 2021, with 558 votes in favor, 37 against and 85 abstentions, the European Parliament embraced the campaign by asking the Commission to end cage farming by 2027 .

The alternatives , reads the note issued by the Eurochamber, “are already used with excellent results in several Member States. […] But to ensure a level playing field for farmers across the European Union, MEPs have agreed that Community legislation is needed ”. The idea is to say goodbye to cages progressively, especially by species , and to impose the same criteria also for meat , eggs and dairy products imported from abroad.

The Commission’s response arrived on Wednesday 30 June . Affirmative. The executive body of the Union is committed to enacting legislation on the subject by 2030 , in line with the From farm to fork sustainable food strategy which is one of the pillars of the European Green deal . The funds of the new CAP – Common Agricultural Policy – will also be used to finance the farmers called to support this transition.

A victory for the animals and for our society

Words that have weight, those of the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides : “ Animals are sentient beings and we, as a society, have a moral responsibility to ensure that their conditions on farms reflect this principle. Today’s response is a decisive step towards an ambitious review of animal welfare legislation in 2023, a priority since the beginning of our mandate ”.

This is a “landslide victory” for those 1.4 million European citizens who have made their voices heard, argue the promoters of the ICE, who promise to monitor the legislative process step by step to make sure that the Commission keep its promises.

Even the anti-vivisection League (Lav) does not hide its enthusiasm, speaking of “historic victory”: “This is the biggest change to the industrial economy based on animal exploitation since its affirmation, and this indicates that the interest of animals is now relevant for citizens and is starting to be so also for the European institutions ”.