The first specialised European Reference Centre for aquatic animals is expected to open on Greece’s island of Crete, Greek Agriculture Minister Lefteris Avgenakis announced after a meeting with EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyraikides.

Avgenakis and Kyriakides held a working meeting on the sidelines of a two-day gathering of EU agriculture and fisheries ministers which took place in Luxemburg at the beginning of the week (23-24 October).

After the meeting, they both communicated that the University of Crete has been selected to host an EU reference centre for aquatic animal welfare, “one of only four in the EU and the first specialised in aquatic animal issues”, explained Kyriakides.

These centres provide technical support and coordinated assistance to EU countries particularly in carrying out official controls in the field of animal welfare and they are established in the context of the so-called official controls regulation.

So far, the other three EU reference centres have been established for the welfare of pigs, poultry and small farmed animals, and ruminants and equines.

The setting up of the centre at the University of Crete is a “significant success”, while it is also “another small stone in the country’s extroversion and development potential”, minister Avgenakis said in a statement.

At the same time, he stressed that such a major project would contribute “to the creation of new centres and new jobs” in the region and would be an “effective support to our producers” with modern know-how and tools.

The Reference Centre will operate in the form of a consortium led by the University of Crete, with the additional participation of the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and the University of Barcelona.

According to the minister, the establishment of the Centre will provide “know-how to producers in Greece and the EU at large” but also “valuable knowledge for policymaking by the European Commission”.

The Greek ministry also hopes to enhance its role and reputation as a European academic centre of the University of Crete “promoting scientific research on aquatic animal welfare, as well as environmental protection and improved water management, contributing to the conservation of biodiversity”.

The news comes at a moment when policymaking in animal welfare is stumbling, as the much-awaited overhaul of the EU animal welfare rules, originally expected to be unveiled before the end of the year, is conspicuously absent from the Commission’s working programme for 2024.

However, the protection of animals during transport – one of the four proposals intended to make up the animal welfare package – will come before the end of 2023, Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who is in charge of the Green Deal, confirmed recently.

Source: Euractiv.com