Animal welfare deserves better from ECAs

(EuroActiv, Brussels, 7 October 2016) International finance institutions and member state export credit agencies continue to invest in projects outside the EU involving cruel farm animal confinement systems banned in the EU. Better joined-up thinking is needed with regard to investment policy and animal welfare, writes Joanna Swabe, executive director for Humane Society International/Europe. In 2013, Humane Society International released a report that revealed that EU countries were funding many animal agricultural projects in non-EU members, either through international finance institutions (IFIs) or export credit agencies, which employ housing systems that have long been prohibited and phased-out in the EU.