92000E3766

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3766/00

by Nelly Maes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(4 December 2000)

Subject: Labelling and checking of animal skins

In reply to a recent question on the labelling of animal skins, Commissioner Lany said that the trade in cats and dogs is not prohibited in the Community under the CITES convention. Such a ban has been announced in the USA, partly because it is not easy to distinguish between the skins of endangered species and those of cats and dogs. University research has also confirmed that the visual checking of skins is a totally useless measure.

Is the Commission considering stricter checks in order to prevent the skins of protected animal species being imported into the EU as cat and dog skins?

Is the Commission considering announcing a ban on cat and dog skins, both in order to improve the protection of these animals against commercial exploitation, and in order to close the loopholes in the CITES convention and to improve compliance with the ban on the trade in the skins of endangered species?

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(7 February 2001)

The Commission's responsibilities towards animal protection have increased under the recent amendments of the Community, which includes a Protocol requiring the European institutions and Member States to pay full regard to animal welfare

when drawing up policies concerned. Therefore, Commission's policies tend to further the objective of improving protection and respect for the welfare of animals as sentient beings. However, as already recalled in the Commission's answer to the Honourable Member's Written Question E-2654/00(1), the commercial exploitation of fur-bearing animals is not against the law in the Community or its Member States.

The Commission has no data on fraudulent imports of protected fur-bearing animals covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

With regard to more stringent controls on the import of animal skins, the Commission confirms that under the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein(2), which implements CITES in the Community, appropriate controls of imports of specimens of endangered species are being carried out by customs officers, equiped with the necessary identification materials.

In the light of public concern about the commercial exploitation of cat and dog furs, including in international trade, the Commission will follow up this question in order to examine whether it should propose measures at European level, taking into consideration the principle of subsidiarity. The Commission will report back to the Parliament on progress on this issue.

(1) OJ C 136 E, 8.5.2001, p. 69.

(2) OJ L 61, 3.3.1997.