WRITTEN QUESTION P-0165/02

by Christel Fiebiger (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 January 2002)

Subject: Protection of wild animals

As a Member of the European Parliament, I am increasingly being approached by members of the public with requests for help or with complaints regarding the protection of wild animals, almost always relating to cruelty to animals.

The following are two examples:

- Trade in wild common (brown) hares: There was outrage in Germany following a television report about wild hares being caught in nets in a well-planned and highly organised manner by the Polish army in eastern Poland and then being transported thousands of kilometres to southern France in awful conditions. Hundreds of thousands of hares are shipped this way every year, but not so that they can be resettled for ecological reasons. What happens is more than just cruelty to animals, for it is a conventional business operation designed to satisfy people's passion for killing. The shooting of the hares, which first have direction-finding devices fitted to them, is not huntsmanship but murder.

- The Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) in Rijswijk, Netherlands: Conditions at this centre, which holds 1500 primates, including 120 chimpanzees, are reportedly intolerable with, for instance, more than 500 macaques, which in the wild live in troops, each languishing in isolation in an extremely small metal cage. The Centre is allegedly funded by the European Union to the tune of EUR 2,21 million a year.

Will the Commission therefore state:

- What means or plans it has for taking legal action in respect of cases of cruelty to animals perpetrated in areas which fall within the remit of the Member States, especially since the Amsterdam Treaty explicitly only requires the European Institutions to take due account of the welfare requirements of animals in the context of Community policies (under the relevant protocol to the Treaty)?

- Whether the trade in common hares is compatible with the Berne Convention (Council Decision 82/72/EEC(1) of 3 December 1981), and if it intends, irrespective thereof, to press for the prohibition of such trade vis-à-vis importing EU Member States and exporting candidate countries, and, if so, how?

- Whether it can and will demand repayment of EU funding if the reports about the BPRC should turn out to be correct?

(1) OJ L 38, 10.2.1982, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(20 February 2002)

As far as the conditions of transport mentioned by the Honourable Member are concerned Polish national legislation would apply within Poland, although as a candidate for accession Poland is aligning this legislation with that of the Community.

Legal doubts concerning the extent to which Council Directive 91/628/EEC(1) of 19 November 1991 on the protection of animals during transport as amended by Directive 95/29/EC(2) of 29 June 1995 can cover a transporter of animals to the Community before the vehicle concerned enters Community territory have not yet been resolved. It is clear, however, that the Directive is fully applicable once the animals are brought into the Community.

The Commission does not currently have sufficient information to judge whether the part of the journey within the Community in respect of the trade in wild hares respects the requirements of the Directive.

As the common hare is not one of the species protected under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora(3), responsibility for regulating the capture and transport of this species lies with the Member States and the candidate countries for accession. The Commission has no power to intervene.

The common hare Lepus capensis (europaeus) is one of the species of wild animal listed in Annex III to the Berne Convention. The parties to this Convention, including Poland and France, must therefore take the appropriate and necessary legislative and regulatory measures to protect the species. Such measures include banning the use of non-selective methods of capture and regulating the transport of captured animals. The catching of hares using nets as reported by the Honourable Member would therefore be contrary to the provisions of the Convention.

The Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) which is situated in the European Union but independent of the Union, has engaged itself contractually to fulfil all national legal and ethical requirements. The BPRC confirmed to the Commission in July 2001 that it has the permission at local level to conduct biomedical research with non-human primates.

The Commission does not intend to exclude the BPRC from participation in Community funded projects as long as the relevant authorisations from national authorities have been obtained.

(1) OJ L 340, 11.12.1991.

(2) OJ L 148, 30.6.1995.

(3) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.