IFAW statement on the EU Commission’s intent to evaluate the EU Seal Products Regulation

(Brussels, 6 June 2024) The European Commission recently announced its intent to evaluate the EU Seal Products Regulation to assess if it is still fit for purpose.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has been fighting to end the atrocities of the commercial seal hunt in Canada since 1969 and we took our evidence of the cruel and wasteful hunt to Europe, where we successfully campaigned for an import ban on all commercial seal products from non-indigenous hunts. When the EU ban was challenged by Canada and Norway at the WTO, IFAW supported a successful defence, which resulted in a historical judgment confirming that animal welfare concerns are a legitimate reason to regulate trade.

IFAW response to EU Commission announcement

Ilaria Di Silvestre, Head of EU Policy & Campaigns at IFAW said:

“The EU Seal Products Regulation aims to harmonise trade rules and was issued in response to concerns of millions of citizens about the animal welfare aspects of the killing and skinning of seals and the possible presence of such products on EU markets.

A fit-for-purpose exercise should focus on whether the Regulation is serving its purpose: harmonising trade and making sure that seal products from a cruel commercial hunt are not placed on the EU market. Trade statistics show that the EU Seal Products Regulation is clearly fit for purpose.

Nordic countries have tried before to introduce an exemption to the ban, for seal products resulting from local hunts ‘necessary to prevent over-population’. The WTO already ruled that it was practically impossible to distinguish these from commercial hunts and the proposed exemption was dismissed."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The purpose of the EU Regulation No 1007/2009 on trade in seal products is “the elimination of obstacles to the functioning of the internal market by harmonising national bans concerning the trade in seal products at Community level” (Preamble 21).