The Farm to Fork Strategy adopted by the Commission on 20 May 2020 announced that the Commission will revise the animal welfare legislation to align it with the latest scientific evidence.
In 2021, the Commission responded positively to the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) "End the Cage Age", committing to present a legislative proposal to prohibit cages for the species and categories of animals covered by the ECI as part of this revision.
The Commission's preparatory work aims to revise the following pieces of legislation: the Directive on the protection of animals kept for farming purposes, four Directives laying down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens, broilers, pigs and calves; and the Regulations on the protection of animals during transport and at the time of killing.
In addition, the Commission's preparatory work includes considerations on animal welfare labelling.
In view of this revision, the Commission is working on an Impact Assessment, whose objective is to assess the economic, social and environmental impact of the envisaged changes to the EU animal welfare legislation.
Since it was the most advanced, on 7 December 2023, the Commission adopted the proposal of revision of the Regulation on the protection of animals during transport. In addition, it adopted a proposal for a new Regulation on the welfare of dogs and cats and their traceability.
The proposed measures on transport will improve the wellbeing of the 1.6 billion animals transported across borders in the EU and from the EU each year.
The new rules on the welfare of dogs and cats and their traceability will establish, for the first time ever, uniform EU standards for the breeding, housing, handling, and reproduction of dogs and cats in breeding establishments, pet shops and shelters transport. It will also reinforce existing provisions on the traceability of dogs and cats supplied in the EU rules to combat illegal trafficking.
The two legislative proposals have been submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for agreement.
As established by the Vision for Agriculture and Food adopted on 19 February 2025, building on the recommendations by the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, the Commission will closely exchange with farmers, the food chain and civil society.
On that basis, the Commission will present further proposals on the revision of the existing EU animal welfare legislation, including its commitment to phase out cages. The Commission will also pursue, in line with international rules, a stronger alignment of animal welfare standards applied to imported animals and food.
This revision will be based on the latest scientific evidence and take into account the socio-economic impact on farmers and the agri-food chain, providing support and appropriate, species-specific transition periods and pathways.
In 2021, based on the preliminary findings of the evaluation of the current legislation ("Fitness check"), the Commission published an Inception Impact Assessment Roadmap presenting the policy options envisaged to be examined in the Impact Assessment.
The roadmap was open for public feedback until 24 August 2021. It covered four areas of animal welfare: at farm level, during transport, at slaughter, and animal welfare labelling.
A public consultation was held from 15th October 2021 to 21st January 2022 to gather views and experience of citizens and stakeholders on the fitness of the current rules and on how they could be improved. See the factual summary report of the 59281 contributions received.
In September 2022, the Fitness Check was concluded. Its results, presented in a Commission Staff Working Document, confirms the need to revise and modernise the EU animal welfare legislation, and provides a good basis for this revision.
The Commission has sent a roadmap to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) summarising the animal welfare mandates to be delivered between 2022 and 2028 to cover all animal species included in the revision.
EFSA has already published Scientific Opinions on the welfare of broilers; of calves; of pigs; of laying hens; of dairy cows; of ducks, geese and quails (when it comes to their housing conditions); as well as the welfare during transport of pigs, bovines, equids, small ruminants and animals transported in containers.
In addition, it adopted a scientific Report on the welfare of cats and dogs in commercial breeding establishments. EFSA is now working on European Commission mandates concerning the welfare of beef cattle, of turkeys, and of fur animals.
The European Commission has asked two of the voluntary initiatives of the EU Platform on Animal Welfare to provide them support on possible elements to improve the welfare of equids and pets in the updated EU animal welfare legislation. The produced recommendations are available here.