A citizen collective filed a complaint on Monday against the European Commission before the EU justice system for not having kept its commitment to legislate against cage farming, following a petition which exceeded one million signatures.
In addition to massively caged rabbits, half of the EU's laying hens are kept in cages, as are the majority of sows at some point in their lives.
Ducks and geese are also caged to be force-fed.
This practice is already banned in organic farming across the EU.
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A “European Citizens’ Initiative” (ECI) launched in 2018 to call for an end to cage farming, supported by a coalition of 170 NGOs coordinated by the organization CIWF (Compassion in World Farming), had collected nearly 1.4 million signatures across the European Union.
It forced the European executive to provide a response, the necessary threshold of one million citizens having been reached.
The Commission declared in June 2021 “to respond positively” and committed to presenting by the end of 2023 a proposal aimed at gradually eliminating the use of cage systems for laying hens, sows, calves, rabbits, chickens, quails, ducks and geese.
Brussels said it wanted to begin a public consultation in 2022, with a view to integrating this project into the texts on animal welfare currently being revised.
NGOs say they were misled
But the Commission ultimately presented only a very limited legislative project last December, which only concerns the transport times of animals intended for slaughter.
“With its inaction, the Commission disregards the suffering of more than 300 million animals locked up each year,” which hinders their natural behavior, underlined Léopoldine Charbonneaux, of the CIWF organization.
Brussels “also betrays millions of European citizens”, who “believed that the initiative was a real democratic tool to influence the decision-making process”, she added, president of the “ICE citizens’ committee” .
Initiated after unanswered reminders from the Commission, “the legal action may take up to 18 months to complete, but we hope that it will be resolved as quickly as possible,” the CIWF explained to AFP. .
He believes that the commitment made in 2021 is “a sufficient basis” to be considered binding.
The Commission indicated last week that it wanted to develop its future legislation on animal welfare in consultation with the agri-food sector, using more in-depth environmental, social and economic impact studies.