eu-reply-7755651

Official Reply from the European Commission / Europe Direct

The following text is presented as the official reply received from the Europe Direct Contact Centre, reply no. #7755651.

Dear Mr Yorozu,

Thank you for contacting the Europe Direct Contact Centre.

We have consulted the Directorate-General for Health and Food safety about your enquiry. Please find below the answer to your question.

In response to your questions, we would like to inform you that the EU does not have a mechanism to prevent ongoing killing of fur animals during the transition period. Member States establish their own conditions on how to implement national bans on fur farming. There is no legal basis for the Commission to intervene in the activities of Member States as long as they are in line with the EU rules. The killing of animals has to be performed in accordance with EU legislation Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing.

Therefore, the Commission is not coordinating actions taken unilaterally by Member States to ban fur farming nor the conditions under which such bans are decided and implemented.
The Commission work on the follow up to the ECI Fur Free Europe is ongoing.

You have already written on this subject and received detailed response.

Please note that the Commission reserves the right to discontinue repetitive correspondence in accordance with the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour of Staff of the European Commission in their Relations with the Public: https://commission.europa.eu/about/service-standards-and-principles/ethics-and-good-administration/staff-and-ethics_en.

In line with the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, we regret to inform that the Commission will not be replying to any future correspondence from you on this subject.

We hope you find this information useful. Please contact us again if you have other questions about the European Union, its activities or its institutions.

Created on: 2026-04-21 15:46:41
Add to europe mailing list: Yes

Dear Europe Direct Contact Centre,

Thank you for your reply. However, your response does not address the core issue. The follow-up process regarding “Fur Free Europe” is ongoing and expected to be finalized soon, but no concrete mechanism was identified to prevent ongoing killing during the transition period.

If fur farming is being phased out on ethical grounds, allowing animals currently in the transition to be killed raises a fundamental issue of consistency.

In the Romanian case, approximately 4,613 chinchillas remain at risk. I raised this as a concrete implementation case involving identified actors and a practical transition model. Your response did not clarify whether any EU-level mechanism exists to prevent these animals from being killed, nor which authority is responsible.

I therefore ask you to clarify explicitly:

1. Does the EU currently have any concrete mechanism to prevent ongoing killing of fur animals during the transition period in cases such as Romania?
2. If no such mechanism exists, does the Commission acknowledge a coordination and implementation gap?
3. If such a mechanism exists, which authority is responsible for triggering it?

Unless clarified, your reply may reasonably be understood as indicating that no concrete operational safeguard is currently provided to prevent ongoing killing during the transition period.

For the avoidance of doubt, I may treat your reply as an official response for transparency and public accountability, and may publicly cite it if no clear clarification is provided.

Reference:https://www.transplex.org/save-15000-project/

Sincerely,
Akihisa Yorozu