01 November 2003 10:48
ANIMAL TRANSPORT: COMMISSION PROPOSES TO ADOPT UPDATED EUROPEAN CONVENTION
The Commission has tabled a proposal to sign a new European Convention on the protection of animals in international
transport, after overcoming translation difficulties (See European Report 2814 for details). The text of the Convention
was sent to the Council of Ministers on October 30 for approval by the Member States. If all goes well, the Commission
should be able to sign the text on November 6 at the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers meeting in
Chisinau, Moldova. The existing Convention dates from 1968, and has 23 signatories in the 45 member Council of Europe,
including the EU 15, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey. Although the
provisions of the new Convention do not exceed current and draft EU animal transport legislation (See European Report
2785) they will provide a useful instrument to improve standards in future Member States and candidate countries, such
as Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. However, it is not certain that all these countries will sign the new Convention, and
the technical details relating to rest times, journey times, space per animal etc. have yet to be agreed in a separate
technical Protocol.
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