What criteria should be taken into account? What should the label look like? Can we finally give consumers an educated choice when purchasing animal products in supermarkets and online?   

Denis Simonin, DG SANTE, will join the session to inform MEPs how far the Commission has gone in assessing the need for an animal welfare label and what the next steps are. Following the inception impact assessment in July 2021 and the EU Animal Welfare Platform Subgroup conclusions in June 2021, we at the Intergroup are very keen to learn more about the direction the Commission is taking on this. Particularly concerning whether the label will be mandatory or not. 

Meanwhile animal welfare NGOs have been busy creating their own animal welfare labels based on specific criteria, in order to help consumers when buying meat and dairy products. This of course also gives producers the opportunity to inform consumers how the animal has been kept, fed and treated throughout its life. Claudia Salzborn, expert at the Animal Welfare Academy of the Deutscher Tierschutzbund, will join the Intergroup to provide more information on how these labels could look and function in practice.  

Recognising the valued importance of this topic, MEP Sarah Wiener (The Greens, AT), vice-president of the Intergroup, will present her proposal to set up an Intergroup working group on labelling. All members of the Animal Welfare Intergroup are welcome to apply to join. 

Join us on Thursday in WEISS N 3.2 in the European Parliament in Strasbourg or follow the event live via this link.