
Event - Planting the Animal Welfare Seed in EU - India Trade Relations
Please register here if you’re interested! And click here to see the full agenda and speaker line-up.
The EU and India have been discussing a comprehensive trade agreement for almost 15 years and one of the main stumbling blocks remains the inclusion of provisions on Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) in the future free trade agreement (FTA). Yet, the importance of sustainability in the context of trade policy has only increased over the past years, as the world is facing an increasing number of challenges that can only be resolved through international cooperation – climate change, biodiversity loss, antimicrobial resistance, spread of zoonoses. At the heart of these challenges often lies the food system, and animal welfare.
Considering this and as the EU has now decided to include chapters on sustainable food systems, including animal welfare, in all its future trade agreements, it’s time to build bridges to prepare the trade negotiations by establishing a cooperation mechanism on animal welfare.

The event - which will be jointly moderated by Reineke Hameleers (Eurogroup for Animals, CEO) and Varda Mehrotra (FIAPO - the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, CEO) - will see, first, a high-level panel discussion on animal welfare in the context of EU - India trade relations featuring:
- Maria do Céu Antunes - Agriculture Minister of Portugal
- Dr Vijay Pal Singh - Joint Director of the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India
- Dr Susana Pombo - Portuguese Chief Veterinary Officer
- Dr Ashok Kumar - Assistant Director General at Indian Council of Agricultural Research
- Manuela Ripa - Member of the European Parliament
- Dr Ashutosh Joshi - Joint Director in the Department of Animal Husbandry
- Prof Linda Keeling - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Lucie Carrouée - Deputy Head of Unit on Animal Welfare and Antimicrobial Resistance (DG SANTE)
Then, the audience will have the opportunity to join different sessions on the welfare of fish, dairy animals and poultry, where there will be discussions on what the EU and India could concretely cooperate on.
Please register here if you’re interested! And click here to see the full agenda and speaker line-up.
This event is jointly organised by Eurogroup for Animals and Fiapo.