Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-15-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20090115.2.4-013"2
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"Mr President, a civilisation’s level of development can be judged by how it treats the most defenceless living creatures found in that civilisation. Judging by how we treat our animals, we are still barbarians.
I remember when Sweden joined the EU what is soon to be fifteen years ago. Many of the discussions before we joined were about animal transport. This was an area in which we were to improve the situation. Then came the first directive in 2005. Yet the conditions for the animals did not improve and we were instead told, at that point, that the monitoring would work
that GPS systems would be introduced
that the drivers would be trained
and that the lorries would work better
. Five countries have not even bothered to submit a report. I demand that the Commission fines these countries immediately. As regards the other 22 countries, how many checks have they carried out? How have they complied with the rules? Is it working? The answer in many cases is unfortunately not.
Then Mr Kyprianou promised us that he would come back here before the end of his mandate if it was necessary – it is necessary – and if there is public opinion – and there
public opinion! Many of the new Member States are, in fact, small and there is perhaps no need for a 24-hour journey followed by another 24-hour journey. We will have a new slaughter directive which allows mobile slaughterhouses and which will reduce the need for travelling.
We need to revisit the conditions for animals during transport. How many of us would appreciate having four cows or ten sheep in their double bed for 24 hours? That is how densely packed the animals are at present. Or imagine, the chickens on the top level in the lorry are not, in fact, totally prohibited from letting their faeces drop down onto those below. Who would want to be transported under such conditions? I invite all of the EU’s agricultural ministers to come with me on a journey from Stockholm to Brussels under the same conditions as the animals. I wonder how many will accept that invitation. Perhaps they would rather amend the legislation.
We talk about costs. The highest cost in this regard is the cost to the environment as a result of the long journeys. There is also a cost in terms of the animals’ suffering in connection with the long journeys. However, these long journeys also result in poorer quality meat. They result in a very real reduction in value. An animal that is stressed will produce a much poorer quality meat, and the suffering thus works its way right down the whole chain. Think of the farmer who has put a lot of effort and money into producing a good animal that is then spoilt in the last part of its life.
No, we need a new proposal before the elections. I do not understand how we are to be able to conduct an election campaign if we do not at least have a proposal from the Commission that demonstrates that we will now – finally – improve conditions for animals."@en1
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