TAWC ‘s ask for EU/UK summit

TAWC has written to President Von der Leyen and Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, setting out the following points:

The EU and the UK Government’s first formal summit on 19^th May 2025 offers an important and timely opportunity to reset the relationship between the EU and the UK. The Trade and Animal Welfare Coalition very much welcomes this development and believes that several positive outcomes for animals could emerge from such a reset.

While it is evident that defence, security and immigration will feature high on the agenda of the summit, we hope you can seize the opportunity to also discuss how to cooperate to advance sustainability and animal welfare. On that front, the EU and the UK could work towards agreeing a form of common veterinary area that would benefit animals on both sides of the Channel and act in the interest of the public. Both in the UK and the EU, campaigners are working to raise animal welfare standards, calling, among others, to phase out cages for laying hens and ending farrowing crates for sows. Animal welfare remains a high-profile issue with 84% of EU residents believing that the welfare of farmed animals should be better protected and 74% believing that the welfare of companion animals should be better protected than it is now.

When negotiating this ad hoc common veterinary area, it is crucial that both partners maintain the objective to drive higher welfare for animals. Aligning on animal health standards can facilitate the movement of both pets and equines crossing EU-UK borders, helping not only the animals themselves but the huge numbers of citizens travelling each year.

When it comes to animal welfare, it is important to enshrine mechanisms that would lead to upward dynamic alignment between both partners, ensuring the EU and the UK continue leading the world on setting animal welfare standards that reflect what the public want to see. It would be unacceptable for the EU and the UK to enter into an agreement that would prevent either partner being able to reflect in their legislation, citizens’ expectations for animals. As an illustration, if either the EU or the UK were to adopt animal welfare-related legislations impacting imported products, this would have to be respected by both partners.

Therefore, we hope the Summit can include an agenda item on these future talks. Alongside the recognition of the importance of animal welfare and sustainability, both sides want to drive economic prosperity and strengthen resilience. Reducing trade barriers and enabling the smoother movement of goods between the two sides of the Channel can also contribute to achieve this. Economic security and resilience are one of the three pillars under the UK-EU re-set and having this agenda item at the summit would enable to develop further thoughts around aligning SPS standards to facilitate movement at the border whilst protecting animal welfare standards.

We believe that such discussions would be hugely welcomed by both the agri-food and the animal welfare sectors, as well by the broader civil society organisations.  With scope for revision to the bilateral Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)[3] available from 2026, it is a good time to reflect on the key regulatory implications of a potential new framework agreement on veterinary standards and the way forward.