Event report: “Animal Protection and EU Law: Recent Developments and Prospective Change”

Our conference, with LFDA, “Animal Protection and EU Law: Recent Developments and Prospective Change” in Brussels last week brought together over 50 participants from more than 30 organizations.

The conference offered an excellent opportunity to hear from expert speakers, reconnect with colleagues and friends, and explore possibilities for new collaborations. We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants, who praised both the quality of the discussions and the informative content of the presentations. We are pleased to share a brief summary of the day.

The conference opened with remarks from Nicolas Bureau (Head of Policy, La Fondation Droit Animal, Éthique & Sciences [LFDA]), who paid tribute to Louis Schweitzer, a prominent French business leader and public service figure, who served as LFDA President from 2012 and 2025.

Gabriela Kubíková (Legislative Advocacy Manager, The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy) then introduced the first roundtable. Christian Juliusson (European Commission, DG SANTE, Animal Welfare Unit) presented the current shortcomings of EU animal welfare laws, highlighting the prevalence of general and unspecific standards (“open norms”), such as the use of words like “appropriate” throughout directives and regulations, or qualifiers such as “routine” in the prohibition on “routine tail-docking,” which remain undefined. He also explained that EU animal welfare legislation lacks extra-territorial effect, placing domestic producers at a competitive disadvantage compared to importers.

Denise Candiani (Scientific Officer, European Food Safety Authority [EFSA]) discussed the central role of EFSA in providing scientific opinions to inform European Commission decisions on animal welfare, covering farmed animals, fur animals, and equidae. Her presentation also outlined EFSA’s missions and functioning, and noted the increasing amount of deliverables they produce on animal welfare, as the EU’s competence to regulate animal welfare expanded. She also described EFSA’s engagement strategy, which includes consultations with stakeholders and the general public, calls for evidence, and expressions of interest to inform its scientific work. 

Pauline Phoa (Assistant Professor, University of Utrecht) provided an overview of approaches to extra-territoriality in EU law, specifically in the context of animal welfare and rights legislation. She offered a three-prong classification of extra-territoriality: extra-territoriality as “true extra-territoriality;” the so-called “Brussels effect” as the expression of EU’s soft power in exporting its standards; and extra-territoriality resulting from the EU’s external relations understood as policy efforts to influence practices outside the EU. Situating these discussions in the historical context of the rise of the sovereign state in the 17th century, she discussed the many instances in which EU law produced extra-territorial effects. Examples specific to animal welfare and rights included the prohibition on whaling in international law and the application of EU animal welfare rules during transport beyond EU borders (as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU [CJEU] in 2015) as examples of “true extra-territoriality;” the voluntary compliance with EU standards by international producers to access the EU market as an example of the Brussels effect; and the inclusion of animal welfare standards in trade deals as an expression of EU policy objectives in external relations.

The second roundtable, moderated by Inês Grenho Ajuda (Farm Animals Programme Leader, Eurogroup for Animals), began with Alessandra Donati (référendaire at the CJEU), who discussed three rulings from 2020: Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie van België and Others (C-336/19), Association One Voice and Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux v Ministre de la Transition écologique et solidaire (C-900/19), and Asociación para la Conservación y Estudio del Lobo Ibérico (ASCEL) v Administración de la Comunidad de Castilla y León (C-436/22). The first two cases concerned the use of animals in traditional practices (ritual slaughter and traditional hunting methods respectively), while the third focused on protecting wolves from “psychological damage,” insofar as wolves are part of the ecosystem.

Alice Di Concetto (Chief Legal Advisor, The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy) and Joren Vuylsteke (PhD Candidate, KU Leuven) co-presented on recent trends in EU case law and Member State litigation related to animals. Mr. Vuylsteke highlighted case studies from the Netherlands and Belgium concerning enforcement and access to justice in nascent litigation-based strategies initiated by animal advocates. Ms. Di Concetto identified general trends in CJEU case law that support the relevance of strategic litigation efforts. A first trend is the Court’s reference to the sentience of animals as codified in the EU constitutional treaty. A second is the weighing of animals’ interests in the Court’s proportionality test, including in cases involving farmed animals, which could lay the ground for significant positive developments for animals in the future.

After offering personal remarks on the life and achievements of Louis Schweitzer, Laurence Parisot (President, LFDA) moderated the third roundtable. Nicolas Bureau and Emilie Chevalier (Université of Limoges Law School) presented “Codex Animalis,” an online database gathering all EU animal legislation, regulations, and caselaw, developed in cooperation with French legal scholars, LFDA, and The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy. Prof. Chevalier presented the history and development of the project, as well as the important questions this project raises around the classification of animals, and the scope and sources of animal law as a discipline. The website is scheduled to launch in early 2026 in both French and English. 

Members of the European Parliament Tilly Metz (The Greens/EFA, Luxembourg) and Michal Wiezik (Renew Europe, Slovakia) then took the floor to discuss their work as policymakers in a challenging political environment for animals. MEPs Metz and Wiezik specifically shared knowledge about the political dynamics shaping the ongoing negotiations on the reform of EU legislation governing animal transport.

Lastly, Pascal Vaugarny (Deputy Director, Fermiers de Loué) and Agathe Gignoux (Legal and Public Affairs Manager, Compassion in World Farming France) shared their experience building alliances between the animal advocacy movement and the corporate sector through the French animal welfare label étiquette bien-être animal. Mr. Vaugarny described the project’s origins, born out of a multi-stakeholder cooperation between several animal advocacy organizations, including LFDA and Compassion in World Farming, and producers such as Fermiers de Loué. In her presentation, Ms. Gignoux emphasized the importance of aligning economic objectives – including the need for a level playing field for producers – with meaningful animal protection objectives.