Landbouwminsiters komen niet tot akkoord over diertransporten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU agriculture ministers yesterday evening failed to reach an agreement on the improvement of standards for animal transport, missing the last opportunity to tackle the issue before EU enlargement.

After several hours of talks, the Irish EU presidency concluded that there had not been sufficient movement by member states to reach a compromise by qualified majority.

One major reason for the collapse of the talks was a dispute on the maximum transport duration allowed for slaughter animals. Germany and Great Britain demanded a maximum journey time of 18 hours with an in-between break of two hours.

But a number of countries, including France, Spain and Ireland, objected that shorter maximum journey times would seriously harm their meat industries.

In July 2003, the European Commission proposed a system whereby the driver should stop every nine hours and let the animals rest for 12 hours.

However, the collapse of the talks between member states means that the current EU rules, under which animals can be transported for up to 29 hours without a break, remain in force.

Furthermore, efforts to ensure more space for animals in lorries, better ventilation and tighter controls have now also failed.

The animals have lost

The British agriculture minister Ben Bradshaw said, "I am bitterly disappointed at this lost opportunity".

His Dutch colleague Cees Veerman expressed his concern that after EU enlargement, which will take place on 1 May, a compromise will be even harder to reach. He stated, "Opinions in the new member states diverge even more than in the current member states".

"All in all, the animals have lost", he added.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a British animal welfare organisation, said in a statement, "After the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 everyone in Europe seemed determined to reduce the risk of spreading another devastating disease by reducing the amount of travel undertaken by livestock across the EU. Yet here we are three years later with no change and the risk just as high".

More than 20 million live animals are transported throughout the EU each year.