I welcome the joint initiative by Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to ban long live animal transports by road and water! Such live transports are cruel to animals. As we have unfortunately seen time and again, most transports do not even meet the minimum standards for avoiding unnecessary animal suffering. Numerous loopholes make the situation even worse, so that animals often suffer unimaginable agony for days, weeks or even months during transportation and often die miserably. Now that the EU Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Animal Transport, which was set up specifically for this purpose, has uncovered numerous problems, this long overdue initiative is very welcome. I am pleased to see that our demands are being translated into reality.
It is now urgent to ensure that the other 24 Member States follow this example and that all loopholes - for example, bypass transports to third countries - are closed.

Publication of the EU Council