EU Animal Welfare Policy: Developing A Comprehensive Policy Framework

This study is interested in which farm animal welfare policy is best under which conditions. Using indicators at the government, farm, and market level, the authors compared farm policies and their outcomes in eight countries in the European Union. The authors conclude that due to between country variation a single farm animal welfare policy should not be applied to the entire European Union. Further, they argue that before more policy is developed there should be a focus on enforcing the policies currently in place.

Article Abstract:

“Many EU citizens are concerned about animal welfare. The policy literature has responded to these concerns by suggesting a variety of policy instruments to policy makers. However, a gap in knowledge exists regarding which instrument should be applied under which conditions in the policy environment. This article presents the results of multiple inductive case studies of eight European countries to better understand the contingencies to animal welfare policy instruments and to further complement the framework of policy instruments available to policy makers. The qualitative evidence from this study is presented in the form of a policy decision tree indicating instruments likely to be effective under given conditions. The findings suggest that a “one size fits all” solution for animal welfare in the EU is unlikely to be effective and that although a market-based policy within the current EU context is in many cases inevitable, the barriers are numerous and require policy instruments tailored to the specific context.”