The European Union (EU) has a long history of regulating the welfare of farmed animals. Currently, the ‘on-farm’ aspects of animal welfare (AW) are regulated by five directives adopted by the Council of the EU. The European Parliament is scrutinising the implementation of the EU legislation through a dedicated report (with the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee (AGRI) taking the lead and the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) giving its opinion). This European Implementation Assessment (EIA), aimed at providing evidence in support of the committees’ work on the report, shows that the implementation of the EU acquis has been challenging. Based on a large data collection programme, it presents findings on the implementation of the EU legislation against the standard criteria for ex-post evaluation, namely relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value. The EIA also maps and assesses AW labelling systems operating across the EU in terms of their design (including their scientific substantiation), regulatory status and functioning (including their effectiveness, efficiency and transparency). Furthermore, the paper analyses the prospects for a possible introduction of AW labelling at EU level.
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