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IGC agrees protocol on animal welfare
For many years, the leading animal welfare groups in Europe have been campaigning to change the status of animals in the Treaty of Rome. The Treaty, first signed in 1957, is the legal document which created the European Economic Community. The heads of all the Member States meet regularly at Inter-Governmental Conferences (IGC) where, amongst other things, they can agree amendments to the Treaty of Rome. In the past, these amendments have transformed the EEC into the EC and, in 1991 into the EU, as changes were made to the structure and functioning of the Community.
The animal welfare groups have long been concerned that the Treaty defines animals as agricultural goods , meaning that the legal basis for all European animal welfare legislation is, presumably, to improve the quality of these agricultural goods . It is argued that the Treaty should be amended to re-define animals as sentient beings to provide a firmer basis for animal welfare legislation.
There has been some progress towards the changes sought by the welfarists. In 1991, at the Maastricht IGC, the UK government succeeded in getting a Declaration on the Protection of Animals added to the Maastricht Treaty. However, this declaration was not enforceable and only called upon the institutions of the EU and the Member States to pay full regard to welfare requirements of animals when drafting and implementing legislation.
In response to continuing pressure from welfare groups, the UK government, in 1996, proposed that a protocol (a legally-binding text) on animal welfare should be added to the Treaty of Rome. The wording of the protocol would require all EU institutions and the Member States to give full regard to considerations of animal welfare when formulating and implementing policies on agriculture, transport, the internal market or research. Despite the fact that this protocol did not go very much further than the 1991 Declaration, there was no progress made with this proposal at the 1996 IGC in Dublin.
In the run-up to the most recent IGC, held in Amsterdam, there was further pressure from animal welfare groups to change the status of animals in the Treaty of Rome and there were some rumours that this might get accepted. However, what came out of the IGC was a modified version of the protocol put forward in 1996. The precise wording of the protocol added to the Treaty is:
"The High Contracting Parties, desiring to ensure improved protection and respect for the welfare of animals as sentient beings, have agreed upon the following provision which shall be annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community:in formulating and implementing the Community's agriculture, transport, internal market and research policies, the Community and the Member States shall pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States relating in particular to religious rites, cultural traditions and regional heritage."
As can be seen, this is a weakened version of the text proposed by the UK government in 1996 since it balances animal welfare considerations against the need to respect regional or national traditions and cultures, such as bull-fighting. The reporting of this protocol in the popular media and even some respected scientific journals suggested that there really had been an agreement to change the status of animals in the Treaty. This is clearly not true because, despite the fact that the prologue of the protocol refers to animals as sentient beings, the only actual change to the Treaty was to add the words in the second part of the protocol.
The confused reporting came from a misleading press release issued by the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which claimed that,"A legally-binding protocol will be added to the Treaty of Rome recognising that animals are sentient beings ....". However, officials at the Ministry conceded that there had been no actual change in the status of animals in the Treaty. Perhaps this press release was worded in this way in the naive hope that it would convince the animal welfare groups that they have achieved their objective.