The Polish parliament is temporarily postponing the consideration of a stricter animal welfare law. The Agricultural Committee unexpectedly canceled the review of the controversial new animal welfare legislation on Tuesday. The plenary parliamentary session scheduled for Wednesday on the topic will also not take place.
Polish agricultural organizations have therefore also called off their planned traffic blockades at government buildings in Warsaw for today. They hope this postponement marks the beginning of a cancellation.
The Polish authorities have not yet provided an explanation for the delay. It may be related to simultaneous protests outside the parliament against a new anti-abortion law. Additionally, increasingly strict COVID-19 measures are in effect in Poland.
The bill has sparked large demonstrations over the past months in towns and villages across the vast Polish countryside. Polish farmers accuse the PiS politicians of a 'raid' (because they never spoke about it before) and 'forcing it through' (because dissenting PiS politicians were dismissed and replaced).
A Polish parliament member said yesterday that the bill is being 'put on ice,' but it is still unclear whether that refers to the entire law or only to the dozens of amendments from the Polish Senate. A spokesperson for the Polish PiS ruling party stated that Prime Minister Kaczyński remains committed to the new animal welfare law.
The new animal welfare law would introduce a ban on slaughtering without stunning, on breeding minks, and on keeping pigs and chickens in cages. The legislation would end the large-scale Polish halal poultry exports to countries in the Middle East. However, the Senate had considerably weakened the draft law with dozens of amendments.
These amendments mean that the ban on ritual slaughter would not apply to the (extensive in rural areas) poultry sector; that other bans would only take effect after 2.5 years, and that the ban on mink farms would only start after five years.
It is unclear whether the Polish parliament will agree to such concessions, or if these were ‘pre-cooked’ by PiS politicians to conceal a retreat. A similar situation occurred seven years ago with an earlier stricter Polish animal welfare law.