Mr. Aidan Cahill:

Currently, the standard is that there is a thermometer probe inside the truck. It records the temperature within the truck, in the environment of the animals. After the journey, the member state can select a number of journeys and do what is called a retrospective check on them, and see if the animals were exposed to high or low temperatures. That is all very well but it does not really function great with regard to preventing temperature stress. It offers the possibility to, let us say, carry out enforcement afterwards but this is a lot less effective than preventing the problem from arising in the first place. That was one of the findings of the scientific studies mentioned earlier that fed into and formed the basis of this new proposed legislation. The shift is from measuring the temperature in the truck and looking at it after the fact to assessing the weather forecast before the journey and causing the journey to be altered if it is going to be unlawful.

The proposal is that for temperatures from 25°C to 30°C, journeys between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. will not exceed nine hours. For temperatures over 30°C, only journeys taking place fully between 9 p.m. and 10 a.m. are allowed. If the temperature is over 30°C at night time, between 9 p.m. and 10 a.m. - which is unusual enough in this part of the world but common enough in Spain and Italy - the space allowance has to be increased by 20% per animal.

The findings of the refit process were asked about earlier. Scientifically, those findings are laid out in the EFSA scientific opinion on animal welfare during transport. Politically, the ANIT committee of MEPs gave political input into the process as well. The consensus was that the current framework of rules for animal welfare during transport is insufficient.

It does not offer an acceptable level of animal welfare during transport. That is why they want to overhaul them. Does that answer the Senator's question?