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The Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957
by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg, established the European Economic
Community. The Treaty is the legal base which
is periodically revised to take account of institutional
and policy changes within the European Union.
The Treaty of Rome did not include a reference
to animal welfare. A revision resulted in the
Treaty of Amsterdam which, thanks to Eurogroup
campaigning, included a protocol on animal welfare.
The Treaty of Amsterdam and the protocol became
effective on 1 May 1999.
2009 was to bring significant improvement for animal welfare: as the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, so did Article 13, which requires EU policy-makers to pay "full regard" to animal welfare.
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The animal welfare protocol included in the
1997 Treaty of Amsterdam was significant. For the
first time in European law, animals were referred
to as sentient beings - able to feel pain and
suffering, and experience well-being.
The Protocol created clear legal obligations for
the Community and the Member States to pay full
regard to the welfare requirements of animals
when formulating and implementing the Community’s
agriculture, transport, internal market and research
policies.
For the first time, animals were referred to as
sentient beings. Unfortunately, the Treaty provided no legal basis for the introduction of
legislation specifically intended to improve the
welfare of animals. This means that EU animal
welfare-related legislation has to be based on
other specific objectives of EU policy, such as
the common agricultural policy, the internal market,
and the environment.
The protocol also leaves Member States free to
introduce national legislation relating to issues
such as animal welfare in circuses, equine competitions,
greyhound racing, hunting with hounds, and bullfighting.
Possible exemptions to the Protocol, for the purpose
of religious rites, cultural traditions and regional
heritage, may have reduced the effect of the Protocol
in these areas. However, it did not rule out
consideration of animal welfare altogether. The
requirement is merely to "respect" legislative
or administrative provisions in these areas.
But this was just the first step to the full fledged integration of animal welfare as a cornerstone of EU legislation.
The Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, incorporated an article on animal welfare, in which it instructs all EU institutions and Member States to "pay full regard to the requirements of animal welfare" in the EU's competent areas.
To learn more on the implications of the Lisbon Treaty on animal welfare, click to read our briefing.
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