THE committee of MPs of which I am a member has demanded action from Europe over its failure to enforce pig welfare rules.
After hearing about the European Commission’s failure to enforce the ban on sow stalls, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee agreed to write to the EU demanding to know which countries were in breach of the ban and what the Commission was doing to make them enforce it.
I raised the issue at this week's meeting of the committee, making the point that fully-compliant British pig farmers were placed at a competitive disadvantage because some EU farmers were still using the lower cost, intensive method of rearing pigs.
Sow stalls, which allow the animal minimal movement during pregnancy, were banned unilaterally in the UK in 1999 and in the whole of the EU in 2013.
During a hearing looking into low farmgate prices, I asked Lizzie Wilson of the National Pig Association about the impact of low-cost pigmeat imports and if she thought enough was being done to enforce the welfare rules across Europe.
Ms Wilson said the EU had told the association recently that almost three years after the ban was introduced six countries were still flouting the ban. Although the Commission had not said which ones, it was likely that they included some major exporters of pigmeat to the UK.
Only six months ago the list of non-compliant countries included France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
“Our pig producers have been at a competitive disadvantage since 1999 and continue to be, unfortunately,” Ms Wilson said.
There was "anecdotal evidence" to suggest that countries that claimed to be compliant were not so. "The Commission is doing nothing to actually confirm that in a robust manner,” she said.
Ms Wilson added that the Commission’s inspection regime was underfunded and there were too few field veterinary inspectors to enforce the ban.
I welcomed the committee’s call for action. We want a level playing field for British pig farmers who have enough problems without this prevarication from the EU.
The sow stall ban was introduced in the UK 16 years ago for good animal welfare reasons. Other EU producers were given 12 years to get their systems changed before the Europe-wide ban was implemented in January 2013.
But three years on, six countries are still rearing sows in this cruel way. If the single market means anything the EU must act to enforce its own rules.