UK cannot ban cruel veal imports

12 March 1998

UK cannot ban ‘cruel’ veal imports

By Boyd Champness<

A VEAL import ban on member states rearing calves in tiny crates
cannot be imposed because of the European Unions single market
arrangements, the government said yesterday.

Responding to a question in the House of Commons, junior agriculture
minister Elliot Morley said the Government was currently seeking legal
advice on what action it could take.

The Government is waiting for the European Court of Justice to hand down
its judgement on whether to allow Britain to use Article 36 of the
Treaty of Rome to outlaw veal imports produced in this manner.

If the judgement was favourable, government would initiate measures to
impose a ban immediately, he said.

The use of narrow veal crates has been banned in the UK since 1990 but
the system — depicted as cruel by animal welfare groups — is still
widely used in many other EU member states.