Detailed information
Uniting for success English talk by Dr. Elena Nalon (Belgium)
Franz von Sales: Seminar room, ground floor
Recent experiences of Eurogroup for Animals with EU-wide campaigning.
Eurogroup for Animals is the leading pan-European federation of animal advocacy NGOs, currently representing 55 members (and counting) from across Europe and beyond. Traditionally, we have been lobbying the European Institutions in favour of animal welfare policies in all fields of human activity in which animals are used. To this end we also regularly contribute with our expertise in multi-stakeholder platform and research projects. In recent years, however, it became clear to us that one of our core missions should also be to harness the power of public mobilisation to connect citizens with EU decision makers, and create new animal advocacy opportunities that reflect the changing sensibility towards animal welfare and animal sentience. Since 2015, in partnership with our member organisations, we have been running successful campaigns to mobilise the general public towards specific objectives. With the recently concluded campaign StopTheTrucks we managed to collect over 1 million signatures of EU citizens asking their Agriculture Ministers to support the end of long distance animal transport. We got support from 6 member states in favour of a revision of the Transport Regulation (1/2005), and thanks to this outstanding result the Commission has put this topic back on the political agenda. In May 2017 we launched our newest campaign End Pig Pain
, whose goal is also to collect 1 million signatures asking Agriculture Ministers and ultimately the European Commission to end all pig mutilations. At the moment, it is estimated that 80% of piglets in the EU illegally undergo routine tail docking, and 77 million male piglets are surgically castrated without pain relief. We want all this to end. Based on our experience at EU-level, in my presentation I will discuss the importance of collaboration and joining forces as a crucial prerequisite for the success of EU-wide campaigns. I will also briefly describe how we analyse and act upon political and/or corporate opportunities to shape our flagship campaigns.