EU animal-welfare activists urge von der Leyen to act on cage-free pledge

In 2020, the European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age,” organized by Compassion in World Farming and signed by more than 1.4 million Europeans, called for an EU ban on cage farming. The European Parliament endorsed the request in June 2021, and the Commission pledged to draft legislation by the end of 2023, a deadline that has passed without a proposal. The initiators have now filed a case before the Court of Justice questioning the delay.

Ongoing street protests, petitions and coordinated animal-welfare campaigns have maintained public attention on the issue. Animal Equality, which has kept the demand alive, wrote an open letter to President Ursula von der Leyen asking her to use the State of the Union speech on 16 September to announce two items: a definitive phase-out timetable for cages and an end to systematic killing of day-old male chicks. The group stresses that the commitments would cost nothing beyond what the Commission has already promised.