Ahead of a European Parliament vote later today on new rules on animal health, GUE/NGL MEP Kartika Liotard called for an EU animal health law that will coordinate and simplify legislation.

She said: “High standards of animal welfare are crucial to prevent and control animal diseases and food safety. Instrumental to this is limiting the transport times of animals to 8 hours, registration of pets and proper traceability of animals.”

For Irish GUE/NGL MEP Martina Anderson, the EU animal health law to be agreed in 2015 should remove barriers to animal movement and trade.

She explained: “In Ireland, there is an all-island animal health strategy in place with the objective of allowing the free movement of animals throughout the whole country. This needs recognition by Europe instead of using the partition of Ireland as a barrier to trade resulting in anti-competitive practices by meat factories,” she said.

MEP Anderson welcomed the revision of official control regulations that would put food and food safety back on the table, potentially ensuring risks are eliminated.

She added: “We cannot allow another horsemeat scandal to happen.”

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09
European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group