The European Institute for Animal Law Policy
EIALP
The European Institute for Animal Law Policy (The Institute) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to achieve a better treatment of animals in EU law and policies.
ID: 003123953167-62
Lobbying Activity
Response to Food and Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus
9 Oct 2025
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy expresses concern over the lack of clarity regarding the proposed changes to reporting under Regulation 1099/2009 and 2017/625. Given the rise in animal depopulation due to zoonotic diseases, the Commission must ensure that robust, specific, and transparent reporting on depopulation campaigns is maintained and reinforced. Please find our detailed observations in the attachment.
Read full responseResponse to EU cardiovascular health plan
12 Sept 2025
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death and disability in Europe, placing enormous strain on individuals, families and health systems. Nutrition is one of the most important drivers of cardiovascular risk, yet many Europeans face food environments that make healthy choices difficult. Diets remain low in fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts, while intake of salt, saturated fats, added sugars and animal protein is still too high. These dietary patterns increase vulnerability to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Rising living costs have intensified the problem, pushing households toward less healthy food, while aggressive marketing of unhealthy products often aimed at children contributes to deteriorating health outcomes. The EU Cardiovascular Health Plan should therefore prioritise policies that make healthier diets more accessible and affordable: promoting plant-forward eating, reducing reliance on red and processed meat, ensuring inclusive and nutritious school meals, restricting unhealthy marketing, mandating clear food labelling, supporting reformulation, and applying fiscal measures. Coordinated action can shift food environments so that sustainable, healthy options become the easiest and most affordable choices, improving health and resilience across Europe.
Read full responseResponse to EU Civil Society Strategy
2 Sept 2025
CSOs play a vital role in upholding democratic values, advocating for human rights, and representing diverse societal interests. However, over recent years the already challenging environment they operate in has deteriorated significantly, with the rise of anti-democratic and far-right forces. These organizations now face ever-increasing threats and harassment, on top of already existing systemic barriers such as limited funding that hinder their effectiveness. Additionally, the blurred barriers between CSOs representing public interest and industry associations are enabling commercial actors to better advance their interests and undermining trust in civil society, as the European Court of Auditors highlighted in its recent Special Report 11/2025: [it is necessary]to clarify the criteria for [...] NGOs status when an entity is pursuing their members commercial interests. Recommendations To better protect CSOs, we propose the following measures: 1. Streamlined Definition and Institutional Recognition: Ensure a clear and consistent definition of CSOs at least for the purposes of access to public funding, ideally also encouraging Member States to set up different reporting obligations and governance requirements, distinguishing them from non-profit entities that represent commercial interests, as indicated in the European Court of Auditors' report. 2. Strengthen Media Environment: Enhance the media landscape to protect CSOs from disinformation, promoting fact-checking and ensuring that both CSOs and citizens can engage in informed public discourse. 3. Oppose Restrictions on Freedoms: Defend the rights of human rights advocates inside and outside the EU, ensuring protection for all actors of civil society and guaranteeing an open and vibrant civic space. Robust civic space is a pre-requisite for stronger civil society regardless of the specific area they work in. 4. Safeguard Activists Security and Wellbeing: Promote Member State-level measures that would ensure comprehensive support and capacity building to activists, including legal, financial, psychosocial, and digital security measures, to ensure their safety and well-being. 5. Fair and Proportionate Transparency Rules: Design transparency regulations that are applied equally to all those engaging with policy-makers, promoting accountability and trust in European democracy. 6. Inclusive Civil Dialogue Platforms: Ensure that civil dialogue groups, platforms, and other engagement mechanisms are regularly open to new entrants from civil society, facilitating engagement with smaller and lower-resourced CSOs. 7. Transparent Civil Society Engagement Frameworks: Require Member States to establish transparent frameworks for civil society engagement, promoting consistency and openness in interactions, while differentiating them from non-profit entities representing their members commercial interests. 8. Promote Democracy Globally: Condition trade and other partnerships on the support for civil society actors outside of the EU, promoting democratic values, European standards of consumer and environment protections and human rights globally. Protecting and empowering CSOs is essential for the democratic health of the EU. The EU can and must do more to create an environment where civil society is able to thrive, contribute to policy-making, and hold institutions accountable. Ensuring the safety, recognition, and support of CSOs will strengthen the democratic fabric of the Union and uphold the values it stands for.
Read full responseResponse to Consumer Agenda 2025-2030 and Action Plan on Consumers in the Single Market
29 Aug 2025
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy welcomes the Consumer Agenda 2025 2030 as a strategic opportunity to bring economic objectives (consumer protection and fair competition) into alignment with non-economic objectives (animal welfare, public health, and environmental protection) on the Single Market. In line with the principles of a free-market economy, EU internal market rules should allow producers to promote their good practices and earn a premium for adopting ethical production methods. At the same time, consumers should be able to make purchasing decisions that reflect their preferences, supported by relevant and reliable information about the products they buy. However, the current EU Single Market does not fully allow this to happen, due to the lack of an adequate and consistent EU policy and regulatory framework, thereby allowing the proliferation of misleading commercial speech. The Consumer Agenda 20252030 is an unprecedented opportunity to address these shortcomings through a series of amendments of existing legislative acts, including the FIC Regulation, the Health Claims Regulation, the Common Market Organizations (CMOs) Regulation (and EU marketing standards regulations), as well as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Please see the Institute's more detailed position and recommendations in the document attached.
Read full responseResponse to Follow-up to the European Citizens’ Initiative “Fur Free Europe”
1 Aug 2025
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the call for evidence on the assessment of the "Fur Free Europe" initiative. Please find our submission attached.
Read full responseResponse to Modernisation of the EU legislation for on-farm animal welfare for certain animals
15 Jul 2025
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy (EIALP) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the call for evidence and provides several points for consideration in the attached file.
Read full responseMeeting with Stella Kyriakides (Commissioner) and
9 Sept 2024 · Animal Welfare
20 Jun 2024
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this public consultation on the use of antimicrobials in animals. In our opinion, the Draft Act liberalizes the use of certain antimicrobial agents used in animal agriculture in a way that undermines the EUs commitment to achieve a 50% decrease in sales of antimicrobials for animals used for food and aquaculture. More generally, these new rules jeopardize human health, animal, and environmental protection goals. We therefore urge the European Commission to revise its Draft Implementing Act and restrict the list antimicrobials allowed for veterinary prescription under the exemption provided in Articles 112 and 113, Regulation 2019/6. This would ensure that the Draft Implementing Act does contribute to the misuse of antimicrobials in industrial farm animal production.
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