End the Cage Age - questions and answers

An intervener is an interested party who supports one of the main parties in a legal action. 

Anyone can apply to become an intervener in the case if they can establish an interest in the result of the case so we may not be aware of all the interested parties who have applied to the court today. However, the following organisations have submitted applications – Animal Equality Italy, The ECI Campaign, Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, foodwatch International, Lega Nazionale per la Difesa del Cane (LNDC) and Lega Anti Vivisezione (LAV).

The court will review each application to intervene and make a decision whether the requirements for an intervention are met. This process usually takes several months. The Court will allow organisations to become interveners if they can establish an interest in the result of the case. 

Each third-party intervener will be able to support the main party’s case by providing further important arguments and insights about the impacts of the case on the wider issues impacted by the outcome of the case.  

The broad range of organisations applying to intervene demonstrates the far-reaching consequences of the Commission’s failure to act on this issue. There are many issues at stake - from democracy and government transparency to the environment and animal welfare. 

The ECI tool was introduced with the specific intention of giving European citizens more influence over EU decision making. It is the world’s first and only transnational, participatory democratic tool by which EU citizens can call upon the Commission to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where they consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties. More than 1.4 million people signed the EtCA ECI calling for a ban on cages. It was the first ECI that the Commission decided to fully implement, yet the promise the Commission made – to publish proposals by the end of 2023 – has not been delivered. There is a legal requirement for the Commission to publish a timeline for an ECI - there is no justification for further delay. All the relevant reports, consultations and preparations had already been completed before the Commission abruptly shelved the proposals to reform animal welfare legislation, which included a ban on cages. Therefore, Citizens' trust in the Commission would be seriously undermined if it fails to implement the ban.  
 

Intensive animal farms, many of which confine animals in cages, have devastating impacts on our environment. They are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions as well as water, soil and air pollution. As such, improving animal welfare is an essential step towards making our agri-food systems truly sustainable.  

For example, intensive pig farms rely heavily on imported animal feed which helps drive deforestation in important regions such as The Amazon. This trade in animal feed also drives biodiversity loss as large amounts of pesticides are used which decimates the insects on which farmland birds depend for food.  

The environmental consequences of intensive farming are well known and scientifically documented. That is why the EU promised to revise the EU animal welfare legislation under its Green Deal. As part of this revision the Commission committed to implementing the EtCA ECI to ban caged animal farming.  

Across the world, billions of animals are farmed in cages. That includes pigs, hens, rabbits, ducks, and quail – all subjected to cage cruelty. In the EU alone, around 300 million animals every year are forced to spend much of their lives in cages so small they can’t even turn around.  

Sows are forced to nurse their piglets in crates, rabbits and quail endure their whole lives in barren cages, and ducks and geese are caged for force feeding to produce foie gras. These systems confine, restrict, and prevent animals from expressing their natural behaviours.  

The Commission’s scientific advisers, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), have also backed the phasing out of cages on welfare grounds for pigs, dairy calves, laying hens, ducks, quail and rabbits.  

The Citizens’ Committee of the End the Cage Age European Citizens Initiative (ECI) launched this legal action on behalf of the 1.4 million people who signed the End the Cage Age ECI as well as the 300 million voiceless animals who are waiting to be freed from cages.  

In 2021, the European Commission made a commitment to introduce legislation to ban cages before the end of 2023, but it has failed to do so. EU citizens supported this ECI believing it to be an effective democratic tool that would bring about a ban on cages. This action could compel the Commission to publish a clear and reasonable timescale to progress the proposals. Only the Citizens’ Committee has the ability to launch this action as an ECI requires and organising group to be accountable for the 1.4m voters who called for the successful End the Cage Age ECI.  

The ECI process was introduced with the specific purpose of giving EU citizens more influence over EU decision making. More than 1.4 million people signed the EtCA ECI believing that it could bring about a ban on cages. It was the first ECI to result in a full commitment from the European Commission, yet the Commission set out a specific timetable which made the promise– to publish proposals by the end of 2023 – this has not been delivered and no new timetable has been published. There is a legal requirement for the Commission to publish a timeline for an ECI – there is no justification for further delay. All the relevant reports, consultations and preparations had already been completed before the Commission abruptly shelved the proposals to reform animal welfare legislation, which included a ban on cages. It’s important to hold the Commission to account for its failure to deliver what it promised – to EU citizens and to the 300 million animals that continue to suffer in cages across the EU.  

It’s vital that farmers get the financial support they need to transition to cage-free farming but there is no need for any further delays. The Commission has already undertaken all the necessary impact assessment reports, and Compassion for World Farming has also conducted our own research which shows that the necessary financial tools exist to provide the support that farmers need. Farmers need certainty about their future and should not be investing in the huge expense of a caged system when the public so clearly want an end to their use in the future. Farmers should be supported to make the transition, not left with sunk costs, and should get tax breaks and other financial rewards for making changes that benefit society. Ordinary farmers have nothing to fear from animal welfare and environmental reforms.  

Our aim is to get the European Commission to deliver its promise to ban caged animal farming. If this is successful, this legal action could compel the Commission to set out a clear and reasonable timescale to publish its legislative proposals, bringing the ban another step closer. The court has also been asked to compel the Commission to provide access to its file on the ECI so that one can see why it decided to delay the proposals – so far access to that file has been refused.  

The court action may take around 18 months to come to a conclusion but thehope it will be resolved as quickly as possible to avoid any further delays to the Commission bringing forward the legislation.  

Now that the legal action has been filed, there will be an opportunity for the Citizens’ Committee to request an oral hearing before the court. This will provide an opportunity for both sides to present their arguments at a public hearing at the Court of Justice in Luxembourg.  

If this action is unsuccessful, the campaign will continue in other ways until every cage is an empty cage. But the ECI will also throw into doubt the accountability of the Commission to the will of the public through the ECI mechanism.  

While any national cage bans are welcome, an EU-wide ban is essential to provide a level international playing field for all farmers in every EU country. A ban on the import, into the EU, of products from cages would be an integral part of the EU ban.