Mrs Mullin Bernhardt, First of all, let me thank you for accepting this interview with DV8 World News. I am pleased to have such an environmental professional with us t...

Read more

Ecology: Are you in fashion? No longer a company without its environmental charter, no more a product without its eco-responsible promises, no more a speech coated with ecolo...

Read more

Eating plant-based is 6 times more effective for the environment than eating organic and local according to Carbone 4 , and it takes 4 times more land to feed a person with a hi...

Read more

Not a fan of Unabomber. “When the hares declared equal rights between animals, they wanted to ostracize the lions; they didn't answer, but they bared their teeth &r...

Read more

European citizens made it clear: it’s time for a Fur Free Europe.

A Europe without fur. | Posted on 2023-03-10 13:01

In less than ten months more than 1.7 million citizens signed to end this cruel practice, sending a strong message to the European Commission (EC).

Fur Free Europe was launched in May 2022 by Eurogroup for Animals and received the support of more than eighty organisations from all around Europe. The ECI calls for a ban on fur farming and on the placement of farmed fur products on the European market

Successful from the get go, Fur Free Europe collected 50,000 signatures on its launch day and now, 2,5 months before its official closing deadline, 1,701,892 signatures have been collected, offering a safe margin for the achievement of 1 million validated signatures. The ECI also successfully reached the signatures threshold in twenty one Member States, three times the minimum requirement of seven Member States. 

The decision to close the ECI earlier has been taken due to the potential impact that it could have on the upcoming revision of the EU animal welfare legislation, as part of the EC’s Farm to Fork Strategy. 

By the end of 2023, the EC will publish a proposal aimed at improving the EU’s animal welfare legislation to align it with the latest scientific evidence. While it’s possible to improve welfare standards for domesticated animals, science has clearly shown that this is not possible for wild animals on fur farms. Consequently, a ban on fur farming should be included in the proposal.

Moreover, since imports of animal products should follow EU standards, the ECI also calls for a ban on placing farmed fur products on the European market. Indeed, the organisers didn’t want to export cruelty to third countries but aimed to definitively end the suffering created by the fur industry in Europe.

I could not be prouder of our joint efforts. This citizens initiative gained momentum from day one and proves that European citizens, represented by all the organisations involved, are sending a crystal clear message to the European Commission: it’s high time for a Fur Free Europe. Fur farming represents a massive moral blind spot and, with the new animal welfare legislation coming up, the EC has the opportunity to end this unnecessary suffering once and for all.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

It’s exciting to see that Fur Free Europe didn’t need the full available year to collect the required signatures, proving that the issue is clearly a priority for European citizens. After the validation process is over, the Parliamentary one will start. As chair of the Fur Free Europe working group at the European Parliament, I am honoured to lead the process and make sure that citizens demands are heard and we can finally put an end to fur in Europe.

Anja Hazekamp MEP (Party for the Animals, NL) chairwoman of the Fur Free Europe working group, Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals

 

 

       Fur Free Europe

       BROWSE TO THIS PUBLICATION

Posted on 2023-03-10 13:01

Wizardwords Edition 8 Greenwashing, it’s really not our fight, it’s someone else’s. Sometime after the Assignment (Edition 7.0 Greenwashing is more than br...

Read more

Michelle Thew is the CEO of Cruelty Free International – the leading organization working to end animal testing worldwide. For more than 20 years, Michelle has been an adv...

Read more

Live debate

Donald Trump's re-election is a threat to the climate?

...

No messages currently, be the first!

Egypt issues Africa’s first Sustainable Panda Bond worth 3.5 billion RMB backed by African Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. With African Devel...

Read more

DV8 Chat

Find your friends on DV8 Chat.

Suggestion

Newsletter

Receive news directly to your email!