36 Amendments of Juozas OLEKAS related to 2020/2085(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
— having regard to the European Commission's Study to support the evaluation of the European Union Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of Animals 2012-2015,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
— having regard to the Council's conclusions on animal welfare - an integral part of sustainable animal production, adopted on 16th of December, 2019,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 c (new)
Citation 7 c (new)
— having regard to the Council's conclusions on an EU wide animal welfare label, adopted on 7th of December, 2020,
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas consumer's interest in the quality of food purchased is higher than ever;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the European livestock farms employ around 4 million people (salaried and non-salaried), 80% of whom reside in the more recent EU Member States1a; _________________ 1ahttps://op.europa.eu/en/publication- detail/-/publication/04af47b0-0c38-11eb- bc07-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas EU fish intra-trade plays an essential role in the whole EU fishery trade and it accounted in 2014 for 86% of total trade within and outside the EU, volumes sold within the EU reaching at 5,74 million tonnes with a value of EUR 20,6 billion, the highest registered since 20063a; _________________ 3a https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/201 6/february/tradoc_154321.pdf
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas animal health and welfare are key to enabling food safety and security, public health and contributing to high quality standards in the EU;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E d (new)
Recital E d (new)
Ed. whereas healthy livestock is a key component of achieving sustainable, lower-carbon farming;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E e (new)
Recital E e (new)
Ee. whereas animal health and welfare are essential elements of any sustainable food system and impacts on animal health and welfare have direct effect on the sustainability of the food system;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q
Recital Q
Q. whereas livestock farming methods and production systems vary among the Member States;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas the common agricultural policy (CAP) is one of the regulatory tools that can be used to improve the health and welfare of farm animals;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S a (new)
Recital S a (new)
Sa. whereas livestock farming is the main beneficiary of second pillar aid to farms in disadvantaged areas, which make up 50% of the European UAA, and of Agro-Environmental Measures, which compensate for the additional costs linked to unfavourable location or the obligations of having to respect specific legislation2a; _________________ 2ahttps://op.europa.eu/en/publication- detail/-/publication/04af47b0-0c38-11eb- bc07-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital T
Recital T
T. whereas particular attention should be paid to ensuring that our political decisions do not weaken the European livestock-production sector, which would lead to the relocation of production to other parts of the world where livestock conditions and standards are lower than in Europe, and to other, connected problems, detrimental not only to the animal welfare standards, but also to the European environmental objectives;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital T a (new)
Recital T a (new)
Ta. whereas consumer interest in the quality of food purchased is higher than ever, and whereas food quality in relation to animal welfare and animal health has an important part to play in achieving the goals of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U a (new)
Recital U a (new)
Ua. whereas the uptake of smart farming technologies to continuously monitor animal health and welfare has the potential to ensure effective disease prevention and the implementation of animal welfare standards;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U b (new)
Recital U b (new)
Ub. whereas the adoption of DNA traceability technologies to track and trace every sick animal or infected food has the potential to ensure food safety and prevent food fraud by ensuring consumers;
Amendment 207 #
3a. Is aware of the fact that EFSA produced several opinions on the use of animal-based measures for species not covered by specific legislation (dairy cows and beef cattle) in response to the European Commission mandates; regrets the fact that these animal-based measures issued by EFSA have not been implemented so far; calls therefore on the European Commission to make sure these animal-based measures are updated with the latest scientific knowledge and integrated in the existing specific legislation;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Acknowledges that, as noted by scientific bodies, animal-based measures, though desirable, are not always enforceable and objectively verifiable; calls therefore on the European Commission, in the context of the revision of the European animal welfare legislation, to formulate very specific verifiable requirements in light of the latest scientific opinions and of the various production systems across Member States;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Welcomes the six objectives set out in the European Union Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of Animals 2012- 2015 and acknowledges that these objectives are still relevant3a; regrets though that the impact of the Strategy was very limited due to the lack of outcome indicators or quantifiable plans for tracking the progress of the Strategy actions, which contributed to a reduced level of accountability for the Strategy’s success; encourages, therefore, the European Commission to prepare a new strategy, with an output-oriented approach, as a proper environment to gather Member States’ representatives, scientific bodies, stakeholders, farmers and NGOs and exchange views and best practices in view of a more uniformed implementation of the animal welfare legislation across Member States, in line with the Green Deal objectives; _________________ 3ahttps://op.europa.eu/en/publication- detail/-/publication/1e912399-3905-11eb- b27b-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format- PDF/source-178300128
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Notes that the current EU legislation on animal welfare is not all inclusive and invites the European Commission to assess the need and impact for specific animal welfare legislation, in light of the latest scientific knowledge, for species not covered, in particular for goats, sheep, pullets, dairy and beef cattle, rabbits, turkeys, broiler and laying hen breeders and farmed fish;
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Is aware of the limited overall coherence between the European Animal Welfare legislation and the 2014-2020 CAP as well as of the poor integration of the specific legislation into the National Plans for Rural Developments, with wide differences from one Member State to another; welcomes that the European Commission included animal welfare in the List of potential agricultural practices that eco-schemes could support, issued in January 2021; encourages the Member States to draw up animal welfare eco- schemes in their National Strategic Plans and calls on the European Commission to assess the achievability and enforceability of the animal based indicators and measures accompanying these eco- schemes, in order to have an output- oriented approach and to make possible the monitoring, impact and implementation of these schemes;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Proposes enhancing affordable training for farmers and operators in the sector handling animals by adding a specific module for initial and ongoing training with a view to honing skills; takes note of the scientific opinion on the welfare of pigs at slaughter, issued by EFSA in 2020, stating that the majority of the identified hazards originated from actions and behaviours of animal handlers and owners; encourages though Member States to incentivize trainings for farmers and handlers in their National Strategic Plans;
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses that some measures believed to improve animal welfare are in fact counterproductive and may undermine other aspects of sustainability, namely welfare and health safety-related issues, as well as efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; cites, by way of example, that keeping rabbits in the open air increases stress and mortality levels, and that installing collective cages in rabbitries leads to aggressive behaviour among does, causing stress, injury and reduced performance; points out that outdoor rearing may also lead to a reduced control over droppings and emissions as well as to greater amounts of feed needed, thereby potentially having a greater carbon impact4a; _________________ 4aXin, H. et al., ‘Environmental impacts and sustainability of egg production systems’, Poultry Science, 90(1), 2011, pp. 263-277
Amendment 325 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Applauds the Commission for publishing, on 12 May 2021, strategic guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture, which pay particular attention to animal welfare, and welcomes the fact that Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries is drafting an own- initiative report on these guidelines; draws the attention to the limited synergy between 2014-2020 Common Fishery Policy and the farmed fish welfare; calls on the European Commission to put forward specific scientifically-sound provisions for farmed fish welfare;
Amendment 347 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Underlines that the rate of non- compliance with the animal welfare legislation is limited and has many limitation, amongst which unenforceable and unquantifiable animal-based indicators; notes that the frequency of inspections across Member States ranges from a minimum of 1% to a maximum of 30%; is concerned that this high variation of the frequency of inspections leads to either non-compliance with the Control Regulation, or to high pressure on farmers; calls therefore on the European Commission and on the Member States to standardise the implementation of the Control Regulation to reduce the variation of the frequency of inspections between Member States and livestock sectors;
Amendment 351 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 b (new)
Paragraph 21 b (new)
21b. Takes note of the lack of animal- based welfare indicators for the Council Directive 98/58/EC (general directive), as well as for the Council Directive 2008/120/EC (pigs), the Council Directive 2007/43/ EC (broilers) and the Council Directive 1999/74/EC (laying hens); acknowledges as well the lack of quantifiable requirements for the implementation and monitoring of environmental conditions such as air quality (nitrogen, CO2, dust), lighting (duration, brightness) and minimal noise, which not only affects the animal welfare, but also distorts competition because of the margins of interpretations; calls for the European Commission to set up enforceable and quantifiable such indicators, which should be species- specific and up to date from a scientific point of view;
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Emphasises the importance of precision livestock farming technologies, including the potential of on-farm animal health and welfare monitoring tools, which help to prevent and better control disease outbreaks on farms;
Amendment 357 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22b. Calls for improved management of veterinary prevention and promotion of high animal health and welfare standards, notably on vaccination and preventing the unnecessary use of antimicrobials, to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases;
Amendment 367 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Emphasis the lack of coherence between trade policy and animal welfare policy, which led to an unfair competitive environment for EU producers; calls for reciprocity in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements;
Amendment 384 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3
Subheading 3
Animal Welfare Labelling
Amendment 387 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Deplores the lack of a return on investment for farmers who take part in voluntary animal welfare recognition schemes; notes, further, that animal welfare labelling will only prove successful if a return on investment is forthcoming from the higher price point and only if farmers are guaranteed a fair share of the higher price paid by the consumer for the purchase of food products complying with EU animal welfare labelling requirements;
Amendment 391 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27a. Notes there is little information available on the impact of the labelling systems studied on food businesses as well as on consumers' confidence and understanding of animal welfare practices;
Amendment 393 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Stresses that the introduction of animal welfare labelling requires, at an early stage, harmonised rules drawn up in collaboration with farmers and based on clear scientific indicators and large scale promotion campaigns, alongside with education and marketing actions targeting European consumers; calls for consideration to be given to an EU framework for voluntary labelling covering all livestock farms, so as to limit the risks of distorting competition in the internal market while leaving sufficient room for private initiatives;
Amendment 402 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Asks the Commission to propose an EU framework for voluntary animal welfare labelling which is linked to EU rules – which must be its basis – and which invites the Member States to record the various approaches used; calls for its specifications to be drawn up according to a technically realistic and scientifically- sound approach and for this EU framework to ensure that value is redistributed towards livestock farmers;
Amendment 404 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Invites the Commission to conduct an in-depth examination of the possible implications of introducing mandatory labelling requirements at EU level, drawing in particular on experience gained in recent public labelling schemes in some Member Statesthoroughly assessing the impact on all the actors involved in the food supply chain, from farmers to consumers, drawing in particular on experience gained in recent public labelling schemes in some Member States; calls on the European Commission to avoid conflicts between possible future schemes with existing labelling frameworks, especially with those envisaged by the mandatory requirements in the animal welfare specific directives; is concerned about the results of a previous impact assessment conducted by the European Commission, in 2012, indicating that labelling would increase industry costs without necessarily increasing the benefits as well;