In November 2023, 57 animal protection NGOs submitted an official complaint to the European Ombudsman on the EC’s failure to uphold governing rules. Despite having generated legitimate expectations on acting on the ECI, the EC failed to come forward with a legislative proposal, putting into question the purpose of this democratic tool. This was the first time in which a large number of NGOs submitted a complaint to this inter-institutional European body.

Subsequently, an inquiry was open, in which the EC was asked to send an official reply to the complainants. The delayed response of the EC was however unsatisfactory to the complaints, providing no clear timeline or action plan on when the proposal will be published.

In March 2024,  the Citizens Committee of the ECI launched a landmark legal action against the EC at the European Court of Justice of the EU over its failure to act on its commitment, ignoring the demands of 1.4 million EU citizens.

The complaint at the European Ombudsman has now been closed, and animal protection NGOs will focus their efforts on the official court case. The court case has been officially logged on the 6th of May, and further details on next steps are expected in due course.

Over 300 million farm animals, including hens, quails, rabbits, sows and ducks, are confined in cages on farms in the European Union each year, with many kept like this for all or most of their life. Animals are severely restricted in their movements, prevented from exhibiting natural behaviours, with detrimental effects on their health and welfare.

Without the promised legislative proposal, the phasing out of animals in cages in the EU remains on hold, and animals continue to suffer in millions.

Eurogroup for Animals and numerous other animal protection organisations wrote to the European Commission in October after it unexpectedly backtracked on the commitment to bring forward legislation banning cages in 2023, and did not provide any clarity on when it would be published.

In June 2021, the EC promised that by the end of 2023, it would put forward a legislative proposal to phase out and finally prohibit the use of cages, a commitment which it re-stated and reinforced on numerous occasions. The EC had generated considerable legitimate expectation among citizens that legislation would be forthcoming, creating a case of maladministration.

After not receiving a response from the EC, in November 2023, Eurogroup for Animals and several of its members made an official maladministration complaint to the European Ombudsman against the EC for failure to uphold its commitment to an ECI in which 1.4 million citizens asked for a ban on cages and failure to appropriately communicate its u-turn on this promise.

The complaint raises the issue of the EC undermining the rules that govern ECIs and the very credibility of the democratic participatory process they represent. In the run up to the European elections in June of this year, this is a particularly poor signal to send to citizens.

The European Ombudsman has now asked the EC to send an official reply to Eurogroup for Animals and all the other complainants by the end of January.