The Commission Decision establishing the 'Platform on Animal Welfare' gives the Chair of the Platform the authority to create thematic sub-groups supporting Platform's work in specific areas.
Access to the sub-groups is restricted to selected members and designated experts chosen on the basis of their expertise.
By fostering the exchange of information, experience and good practices, the sub-groups boost the achievement of concrete results by the Platform.
All sub-groups shall be dissolved as soon as their mandate is fulfilled.
In December 2023, the Commission announced a new subgroup on animal welfare policy indicators to collect information on how national and Union instruments and policies can be better monitored and evaluated for their impact on improving welfare of animals, by means of policy indicators.
In November 2021, the Commission announced the establishment of 6 sub-groups to consult stakeholders on how the Union's instruments can be adapted to improve the welfare of farmed animals and better inform European consumers.
These sub-groups focused on animal transport, on the welfare of pigs, poultry, calves and dairy cows, as well as on animal welfare at the time of killing and on labelling. The subgroups started their work in March 2022 and finalised it by the end of 2023.
Previous subgroups of the Platform have worked on animal transport (2018-2020), on pigs (2018-2020) and on animal welfare labelling (2020-2021).