With MEP Manuela Ripa, member of the INTA Committee on International Trade, we discuss how Free Trade Agreements can impact animal welfare standards, which trade agreements represent opportunities and threats to welfare and sustainable development, and why the EU-India negotiations are extremely important in influencing their fast growing agricultural industry.

We discuss the current situation for farmed animals in Europe with MEP Jytte Guteland, who explains how lack of species-specific legislation is allowing millions of animals to fall through the cracks of legislation.To learn more about our demands for the legislation fitness check, view our campaign No Animal Left Behind and sign the petition.

The European Citizens' Initiative ‘End the Cage Age’, which has received over 1.4 million signatures, received a hearing last week in the European Parliament. The discussion was extremely promising, and we discuss how this ECI could and should move forward with MEP Eleonora Evi.

In this episode we are joined by Dr Laura Gribaldo, Scientific Officer at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission. Laura has over 30 years of experience and has been very active in driving the non-animal science agenda.

With guest David van Gennep, Executive Director of Animal Advocacy and Protection, we learn more about how Member States are leading the way in banning the use of wild animals in circuses, as well as getting an insight into AAP’s work with rescuing and rehabilitating animals from circuses.

We discuss the risks to public health from COVID-19 spreading to mink on fur farms with Bo Algers, Professor Emeritus of Veterinary Medicine. Bo is a signatory of our recent scientific statement, urging the European Commission to take a precautionary approach and suspend mink farming and breeding, backed by a new EFSA report stating all mink are “at risk” of COVID-19 infection.

To celebrate the launch of the World Federation for Animals, this week we will be discussing the exciting new initiative on our Animals in Europe podcast.Our host and CEO Reineke Hameleers will fill us in on how and why the WFA was formed with two of the fellow founding board members, Britta Riis and Wim de Kok. We also get an insight into the goals and ambitions of the federation, and what the WFA hopes to achieve for animals whilst representing the animal protection movement on the international stage.

To celebrate the launch of our White Paper on the Transport Regulation revision, our Animals in Europe podcast theme this week is live animal transport. In this latest episode, our host and CEO Reineke Hameleers has a conversation with Maria Boada of member organisation Animal Welfare Foundation. Maria has extensive experience working on the ground with animals being transported, and offers a fascinating insight into the problems with the current legislation and enforcement. The conversation focuses on how the Transport Regulation can and should be improved to better protect the welfare of the animals.

In the latest episode of our Animals in Europe podcast, our host and CEO Reineke Hameleers has an open conversation with Tilly Metz. Tilly is a Luxembourg MEP for the Greens party and a strong advocate for animals. She is one of the Vice-Presidents and an active member of the Animal Welfare Intergroup and has been recently been appointed as the chair of the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport.

In this episode, our host and CEO of Eurogroup for Animals Reineke Hameleers has an open conversation with Ruud Zanders. Ruud is chairman of the Caring Farmers, an organization by and for farmers working on a different and more responsible food system.