GUE/NGL MEP Stefan Eck has been given the top honour by the Eurogroup for Animals for his contribution to animal welfare and for consistently standing up for animals and their needs.

The German MEP was given the ‘EU4Animals Award 2017’ for his success in requesting the European Commission to initiate new legislation in securing minimum standards for the protection of some 330 million rabbits farmed in the EU.

Each year, the Eurogroup for Animals – the only pan-European umbrella organisation for animal welfare – awards a member of the European Parliament for being ‘a true ambassador for Europe that cares about animals’, and for being instrumental in securing higher animal welfare legislation and guidance.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Brussels, Eck said:

“To be awarded with this prize will encourage me to keep pursuing my parliamentary work which is hard work.”

“Lobbying the EU institutions to deliver better legislation and enforcement for the sake of animals is a slow process,” he added.

“In politics and in society, it is not easy to change the mainstream way of thinking with regards to animal protection. We have to keep struggling against the tides of tradition and against the consumers’ wish for cheap meat and cheap dairy products and other animal products,” Eck concluded.