BPC disappointed at failure of EU chicken welfare directive

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The British Poultry Council is very disappointed by reports from the EU Commission and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, that the negotiations on an EU chicken welfare directive have failed.

The BPC Chief Executive, Mr Peter Bradnock said: “The failure to reach agreement on the directive is disappointing, particularly after successfully achieving a consensus amongst UK stakeholder groups and DEFRA. The British chicken sector supported the directive which would have pulled together all the existing UK legislation and official codes into a single document, with rules applying across the whole EU”.

This would have been the first piece of welfare legislation not only to focus on inputs, housing etc, but also on welfare outputs. Welfare parameters were to be monitored and scored at the factory and reported back to every farm.

Commenting further Mr. Bradnock said: “This directive would have ensured a level playing field for chicken welfare across the EU and it is regrettable that some countries, including many new member states, opposed the Finnish compromise in order to continue to export low welfare product into Western European markets. In doing this they protected their own ability to export to the UK and other markets at an advantage”.

-ENDS-

Notes-to-Editors:

1 The British Poultry Council is the leading representative organization for companies and individuals engaged in breeding, hatching, rearing and processing chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese to produce poultry meat.

BPC December 2006