Our work in the European Union
The EU is the world's largest importer of animal products. It sets welfare standards for its own producers but does not apply them to imports. The European Commission has committed to changing this as part of its upcoming legislative review. Animal Policy International works on the evidence base to support that process, drawing on comparative research from New Zealand and the United Kingdom where welfare-based import standards are already a live policy issue.
The Gap
The EU sets welfare standards for its own producers - banning barren battery cages, restricting sow stalls, but does not apply these standards to imported animal products. Products produced using practices banned or restricted in the EU continue to be sold across the single market, undermining EU legislation, disadvantaging EU producers, and shifting demand to countries with weaker standards.
The current picture
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The EU is increasingly sourcing animal products from countries where practices banned in the EU remain widespread. Recent growth is concentrated in lower-welfare suppliers.
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EU egg imports have grown fifteenfold since 2014 and are supplied overwhelmingly by caged systems. Ukraine alone accounts for 65% of imports, up from zero in 2013, and an estimated 95% of Ukrainian hens are in cages.
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Broiler chickens, raised for meat, are not kept in cages in the EU, but caged production is expanding rapidly in countries that supply the EU market. China, now the EU's fifth-largest broiler exporter, rears an estimated 10 billion broilers per year in cages, and its exports to the EU have grown ninefold since 2011. Equipment manufacturers are also now marketing cage systems across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
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The European Commission's own 2024 economic impact report projected that 10 trade agreements in negotiation would add 81,000–91,000 tonnes of beef and 209,000 tonnes of poultry to EU markets, much of it from countries permitting lower-welfare practices.
Source: European Commission JRC report, 2024
Support
84%
of EU citizens believe the current situation on imports from non-EU countries should change.
Eurobarometer 2023
78%
of respondents to a European Consumer Organisation survey support equal welfare rules for imports.
BEUC 2024
EU farming organisations have also called for trade and welfare policy coherence.
This level of cross-stakeholder agreement is rare in EU policy debate.
The Policy Context
EU trade and welfare policy is at a pivotal point.
In February 2025, the European Commission published its Vision for Agriculture and Food, stating that future legislative proposals would ensure equivalent standards for domestic products and imports, particularly on animal welfare. Commissioner Várhelyi has repeatedly confirmed a Q4 2026 legislative proposal starting with laying hens. The public consultation between September and December 2025 drew over 230,000 responses, 3.4 times the previous record, with near-unanimous support for both cage-free transition and import requirements.
The political conditions for delivering on that commitment are favourable. The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, which provisionally entered into force in May 2026, has intensified debate over whether imports should meet EU production standards. Farmer protests across multiple Member States in 2024 centred on the gap between the welfare standards EU producers are required to meet and the rules applied to imports. Stakeholders that rarely agree on EU agricultural policy are aligned on import standards. Copa-Cogeca and the European Council of Young Farmers stand alongside Eurogroup for Animals, BEUC, FoodDrinkEurope, and EuroCommerce in calling for trade and welfare policy coherence.
Our approach in the European Union
Our position is that welfare-based import requirements should be legislated as part of the EU's welfare legislation, not negotiated trade agreement by trade agreement. Trade agreements are agreed case by case and can be weakened, delayed, or excluded altogether. A legislative requirement applies to all imports regardless of origin and provides a durable legal basis for aligning import standards with domestic welfare rules.
The Commission's Q4 2026 proposal is the first opportunity to legislate welfare-based import requirements at EU level. We are working to ensure the evidence base is in place. We submitted evidence to the Commission's 2025 consultation on on-farm welfare legislation and are producing a substantive report (due for publication 2026) drawing on trade flow analysis, legal opinions on WTO-compatible import restrictions.
We work alongside farming and welfare organisations. Our role is to add comparative jurisdictional analysis from our work in New Zealand and the UK, and to support the case for legislative, rather than purely trade-agreement, approaches to import alignment.
Featured work
LATEST SUBMISSION · 2025
Submission to the European Commission's call for evidence on on-farm animal welfare for certain animals: modernisation of EU legislation
Our submission sets out the case for requiring imported animal products to meet EU-equivalent animal welfare standards, drawing on Eurobarometer data, EU farming organisation positions, WTO legal precedent, and comparative jurisdictional evidence.
Forthcoming: an EU report on import standards and trade policy. We are currently producing a substantive report for publication in 2026. To register interest, please get in touch.
Latest from the European Union
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