Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will be aware, an action plan on the protection and welfare of animals was produced by the European Commission earlier this year following a wide consultation process and represents a road-map for the Commission's planned animal health initiatives for 2006-10. Some of these will take the form of reviews of current legislation, while many will consist of reports to the Parliament and Council on various aspects of animal welfare.

The plan foresees five important areas for action, the upgrading of existing minimum welfare standards for those species not currently covered and general legislation applying to all farmed animals, examination of alternatives to animal testing, introduction of standardised indicators which will allow for the recognition of production systems providing for higher welfare standards and the possibility of labelling which would indicate this, an information programme to ensure that keepers and the public are more aware of animal welfare requirements and action in the international arena supporting initiatives of international bodies such as OIE and Council of Europe, and engaging with developing countries on developing trade based on welfare friendly production systems. The EU will also press for acceptance at WTO of animal welfare as a non-trade concern in agricultural trade.

Since the matter was first discussed in Council in February, my Department has been involved in discussions at various fora on drawing up Council conclusions on the Commission's proposal. The draft conclusions that had been developed formed the basis for the EU Presidency conclusions on the draft action plan at last week's Council of Ministers' meeting. At the Council I stated clearly that I am in favour of improving animal welfare standards, first, on moral and ethical grounds but also because of the reality of the ever-increasing demand from consumers across the EU for assurances in regard to animal welfare. I am happy that the action plan responds to those demands. I am also pleased to note that the majority of member states feel the same way as I do on this subject.

As regards the specific issues referred to by the Deputy, I confirm that I welcome the conclusions on the setting up of a network of European scientific institutions and laboratories relating to animal welfare. Legislation should be based on sound scientific studies and on the establishment of objective and measurable indicators for animal welfare.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

In my contribution at this Council, I highlighted the need to maintain a balance between improving animal welfare and protection standards, on the one hand, and the continued sustainability of the various sectors of agriculture on the other. EU producers are already operating in a very competitive environment where there is considerable pressure from products from third countries. In many cases, these products are not subject to the same rigorous production conditions as those applying within the EU. We need to be prudent, therefore, about introducing more demanding conditions which involve additional costs for EU producers unless we can also require third country operators to meet similar standards. We must avoid repeating the recent example of conceding third country markets for cattle exports to operators who are not subjected to any significant welfare rules.

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