Court action in Europe over cages

There are still some major problems in Europe following the ban on unenriched cages for the egg industry.

Greece and Italy in particular have caused headaches for the European Commission and the behaviour of those countries in ignoring the ban has been handed to the European Court of Justice.

Following the compliance deadline, there were many complaints from businesses which complied with the new regulations about those countries that failed to replace their conventional battery cages.

Compassion in World Farming reports that Italy and Greece have 20 million hens confined in barren battery cased, despite the 10 year period given for the January 2012 deadline. This has clearly resulted in unfair competition throughout Europe.

The European Commission is taking the two countries to the Court of Justice over their failure to implement Directive 1999/74/EC banning “un-enriched cages.”