European initiative calls for slaughterhouse closures, EU Commission also documents efforts to change food labelling

The European Commission registered two citizen initiatives on Wednesday. The first calls for the closure of breeding farms and slaughterhouses, the second for better food labelling. This was reported by the DPA agency with reference to a press release from the European Commission.

Organisers of the Let’s End Cruelty, Stop the Killing initiative are calling on the European Commission to introduce incentives for the production of plant-based proteins, including plant-based milks, egg substitutes and cultured meat – meat produced by growing animal cells in vitro. At the same time, they are calling for a reduction in the number of farm animals and a gradual closure of all farms.

Organisers of the “End Fake Food: Origin on Labels” initiative called on the European Commission to propose how European consumers can get transparent information about the food they buy and have their demands for quality and sustainability met.

At the same time, the initiative calls for clear and accurate labelling of the origin of all foods and compliance with harmonized environmental, health and labour standards in the internal market.

Both European citizens’ initiatives meet the formal conditions set out in the relevant legislation. The European Commission therefore considers the proposals to be legally permissible, but has not yet analysed the substantive aspects of the proposals.

After registration, the organizers have six months to start collecting signatures. If the European Citizens’ Initiative receives at least one million signatures within a year and reaches the minimum number of signatures in at least seven different Member States, the European Commission will have to process it and decide whether to respond to this request with legislative measures. Or not. In both cases, he will have to explain his actions to the European Commission.

The Lisbon Treaty introduced the European Citizens’ Initiative as a tool to influence policy making. It came into use in April 2012. Since then, the European Commission has registered 116 initiatives.