Francisco Guerreiro supports proposed ban on fur production in Ukraine

Lisbon, 29 May 2020 –MEP Francisco Guerreiro (PAN) signed a letter today to members of the Ukrainian government about the proposed ban on fur production at national level being advanced at the country’s Parliament.

At issue is the fact that the Ukrainian Parliament is considering a proposal to ban the cruel practice of breeding and keeping animals for the production of fur, a proposal that the Parliament’s Committee on Integration with the European Union (EU) has, erroneously, concluded to be incompatible with EU law. 

In fact, “various EU Member States have already taken legislative action to ban and phase-out fur farming due to concerns that this practice is inherently inhumane”, write the signatories.

The letter also states that countries like Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United Kingdom have done so, while Ireland is in the process of passing a ban on fur production and legislative proposals have recently been introduced in Bulgaria and Lithuania. Even in Denmark, the EU’s biggest fur producer, fox farming has been banned and is being phased-out on animal welfare grounds.

The letter was sent under the initiative of the Animal Welfare Intergroup in the European Parliament and it clarifies that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement of 2014 obliges Ukraine to approximate its animal welfare legislation to that of the EU. We note, however, that no provision of the Agreement should be interpreted as precluding Ukraine from prohibition of fur production in the territory of Ukraine. 

Read the full letter below.

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