Oct 29, 2026 From Petition to Policy: Europe’s Changing Approach to Farmed Animal Welfare

In 2021, 1.4 million European Union citizens signed the End the Cage Age petition, calling for an end to the use of cages for farmed animals. The petition was submitted through the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a mechanism designed to increase citizen participation in EU policymaking. To qualify, an initiative must receive at least one million signatures from citizens in at least seven EU member states. Reaching that threshold is no small achievement.

Since the initiative mechanism was established in 2012, 136 initiatives have been registered. However, only 16 (11.8%) have reached the one-million-signature mark—fourteen of those received a formal reply from the European Commission. Animal protection initiatives have been particularly successful: five of the top ten initiatives receiving more than one million signatures have addressed animal protection issues.

The European Commission responded positively to the End the Cage Age Initiative and committed to introducing legislation to phase out cages on farms by the end of 2023. The Commission subsequently asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to examine the implications of ending the use of cages for several categories of farmed animals. However, political pressure delayed action on the commitment.

Public interest in the issue nevertheless remained strong. The EU’s Eurobarometer survey reported that nine out of ten EU citizens considered farmed animal welfare important, while 84% wanted better protection for farmed animals in their country.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, subsequently organized a Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture. Twenty-nine representatives from agricultural, food, environmental and animal protection organizations participated under the chairmanship of Professor Peter Strohschneider of the University of Munich.

Philip Lymbery of Compassion in World Farming, the sole animal protection representative, described the challenge: “It felt like Mission Impossible. Twenty-nine industry leaders from food, farming, academia, and the environment brought together in Brussels for a ‘Strategic Dialogue,’ many with diametrically opposing views. It aimed to reach a consensus on a new direction for food production and consumption. It seemed like a tall order.”

Yet, after eight months of intensive discussion, the seemingly unlikely group reached consensus and submitted a report with clear recommendations.

Among them was agreement that caged farming should be phased out in the EU and that farmers should be fully compensated for the transition. The group also called for urgently updating EU animal-welfare legislation, the prioritization of high animal-welfare standards with support from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, and clear and comprehensive animal-welfare labeling for meat and dairy products. As Lymbery noted, the dialogue “set out a clear transition toward more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food and farming.”

The Dialogue Group’s report cleared the way for the European Commission to develop a new EU livestock strategy, published on July 7, 2026. The strategy seeks to balance several sometimes competing priorities: building a resilient and competitive livestock sector, reducing dependence on imported feed, supporting rural communities, improving sustainability and strengthening animal welfare. It also recommended closing an 18-billion-euro investment funding gap.

Of particular importance to animal advocates, the strategy calls for phasing out cages for laying hens by 2026 and for sows by 2027, while developing tools to track farm sustainability and livestock emissions.

The EU describes the new strategy as a “paradigm shift,” treating livestock not simply as a source of emissions but as a strategic asset for food security, rural communities and economic resilience. The strategy attempts to bring sustainability, competitiveness, animal welfare and protein self-sufficiency together within a common approach to the future of European livestock production.

Whether all these commitments ultimately translate into meaningful improvements for farmed animals remains to be seen. However, the journey from the End the Cage Age petition to a broader European livestock strategy demonstrates that sustained public concern for animal welfare can influence even the most complex agricultural policy debates.