This week (7 July), the European Commission published the Livestock Strategy which, if delivered, will be a significant victory for animals – freeing over 160 million animals from cages each year.

After years of pressure and broken promises, the Strategy confirmed that the Commission will finally deliver proposals to ban cages for laying hens in 2026 and for sows by mid-2027. However, it missed the opportunity to end the long-distance transport of animals to third countries, leaving thousands of animals exposed to cruel, avoidable suffering.

It came along with the Protein Plan, which acknowledged the EU’s feed issue and the positive contribution of plant-based diets.

We’ve been through both documents and summarised everything you need to know, and the impact that these plans will have on animals and farming in Europe.

Cage ban for hens and sows

In the Livestock Strategy, the Commission announced that it will present the long-overdue proposals to ban cages for hens by the end of 2026 and for sows by mid-2027. It also announced it will introduce measures to improve welfare standards for chickens farmed for meat by the end of 2026. If delivered, this would set a historic precedent for phasing out caged systems across Europe.

However, the Strategy failed to set a timeline for when the Commission intends to come forward with proposals for all the other species – millions of rabbits, quail, geese, and ducks – farmed in cages across Europe.

It also alludes to long transition periods – but animals have waited long enough and deserve a swift shift to cage-free farming. Adequate financing through the Common Agricultural Policy, but also other instruments, as proposed by the Commission, will be crucial to make this happen.

It is also positive that the Commission proposed to boost demand for cage-free products, through supply chain agreements with retailers and via the EU promotion policy.

A ban on live transport

The Livestock Strategy missed an opportunity to ban the live transport of animals. Instead, it announced that the Commission will exchange with relevant stakeholders on the export of live animals and consider alternatives to transporting live animals to countries outside of the EU for slaughter.

Transported on long journeys, animals often face overcrowding, extreme heat, hunger, dehydration, injury, and severe stress. Many perish on vessels and trucks even before getting to their destination.

With clear evidence pointing at the trade in carcasses, meat, and generic materials as a cheaper, safer, and more humane alternative, the Commission must finally recognise that it’s time to ban live exports.

Animal welfare revision still pending

Other positive elements of the Livestock Strategy include

an upcoming ban on the cruel practice of culling male day-old chicks
the commitment to introduce animal welfare requirements for imported products, in line with WTO standards.

Sadly, while the strategy explains that animal welfare rules are currently being reviewed to ensure better alignment of standards, it fails to announce details about the long-overdue overhaul and modernisation of the EU’s overarching legislation, to ban cruel and outdated practices such as mutilations, inhumane slaughter, or tethering.

Factory farming remains unquestioned

Despite a clear recognition that animal farming is a major source of emissions, the strategy fails to move the sector away from factory farming.

It instead pushes for technofixes, one of which would involve measuring livestock methane emissions in a way that would reduce the sector’s reported climate impact.

Worryingly, the Strategy also announced ‘stress-testing’ some of the key Directives which currently offer limited protection from the worst negative impacts of factory farming on nature, continuing the undoing of environmental legislation which we’ve seen from the Commission over recent years.

We must change how we feed animals and ourselves

Alongside the Livestock Strategy, the Commission has also released the Protein Plan, which aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on imported plant proteins for feed and boost plant-based food consumption.

Some of the report’s recommendations are positive, especially when it comes to promoting extensive farming to reduce feed imports and focusing on demand-size measures to increase plant-based food uptake, for example through taxation or public procurement.

However, it falls short of stating loud and clear that our current consumption of animal-sourced food is incompatible with a food system that operates within planetary boundaries. Our food security will remain at risk if we keep wasting resources to grow feed for animals, instead of food for people.

Philip Lymbery, Global CEO at Compassion in World Farming, said:

After years of delay, this could be the breakthrough Europe’s farmed animals desperately need. A ban on cages for hens and sows would transform the lives of more than 160 million animals and show that public pressure can lead to real change.

However, this must not be where the Commission’s ambition ends.

It promised to End the Cage Age for all animals. It must now maintain momentum and give a clear, ambitious timeline for banning cages for every species.

The Commission must also go beyond tinkering with how factory farms operate and confront the urgent need to transform the system itself. With ecological collapse already unfolding, business as usual in Europe’s farming sector is no longer an option.

The EU Commission’s Livestock Strategy – everything you need to know