Animal welfare campaigners have launched legal action against the European Commission for its failure to deliver its cage-free farming ban pledge.
The Citizens’ Committee of the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) said the EU had "failed to act on its promise to introduce legislation to ban cages."
The Committee further explains that to renege on its promise to ban cages "defeats the very purpose of this new democratic tool", referring to ECIs.
These were introduced with the specific intention of giving EU citizens more influence over decision making in the bloc.
In 2021, the Commission made pledged to introduce legislative proposals for an EU ban on caged farming before the end of 2023.
Papers have been filed at the Court of Justice in Luxembourg outlining the Committee’s case, with the legal action funded by Compassion in World Farming.
The move is the first to hold the Commission to account over its failure to act on an ECI.
Olga Kikou, of the Citizens’ Committee of the End the Cage Age ECI, said: “The European Commission promised EU citizens it would deliver a ban on cages.
"Not only has it failed the people, it has clearly failed the 300 million animals still suffering every day in cages. There is no justification for any further delay.
"We will not rest until every cage is an empty cage.”
