A revised Regulation on live animal transport, possibly together with rules on cat and dog breeding, is the only piece of updated legislation that will be put forward in this political term. This is at a time when we, and millions of European Citizens, fully expected the European Commission to deliver on its firm commitment to revise all animal welfare rules.

The past few weeks have been among the hardest in my position as the CEO of Eurogroup for Animals but also, in some respects, the most surreal. In the ten years I have proudly spent leading this organisation, I experienced many political hurdles. Together with my team and our member organisations, we went through long years of lobbying and campaigning that were met with political inaction on the part of the European Commission.

As millions of citizens are waiting for the European Commission to deliver the proposals to revise the outdated EU animal welfare legislation, the EU seems to prioritise trade negotiations that are increasingly in a deadlock.

Featherless, panicking laying hens shoved into crates and sent to slaughter; lame mother sows, a spray mark on their backs to indicate that their time is up; and then millions of rabbits, ducks, geese, quails confined for part or all of their short lives in wire cages, in dimly lit warehouse-like barns, inhaling dust and ammonia from their own waste.

For the first time in over a decade, on the legislative side things are moving forward for animals in Europe, as the European Commission is working on the much needed revision of its animal welfare legislation.