Despite the sharp rise in food prices recently, the FDP now wants to support an animal welfare tax of 40 cents per kilo of meat. Greens and SPD have suggested that farmers can use the money to enlarge their barns. However, the Liberals set conditions.
In the deadlocked dispute over an animal welfare tax on meat, the FDP has announced an end to the months-long blockade. According to the Tagesspiegel, however, the liberals made their move dependent on the condition that new requirements for farmers should not be tightened again immediately. Greens and SPD support the levy to enable farmers to keep animals better in the long term. "We hope that the outstretched hand of the Greens and the SPD will not be knocked out and the cow will come off the ice," Gero Hocker, spokesman for agricultural policy for the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, told the newspaper. "We don't want a year-long stalemate."
The FDP has always rejected demands from the SPD and the Greens for an animal welfare tax or an increase in VAT on animal products as a source of funding for farmers, citing high inflation. Now the Liberals are ready to support an animal welfare levy of up to 40 cents per kilo of meat or sausage. Eggs, milk and cheese are to be left out for the time being, but may follow at a later stage if the farmers need further financial resources, the newspaper further reported. First of all, the Lower Saxony FDP made such a move, in the agricultural state there will be elections on October 9th.
The SPD welcomed the initiative. "I was pleased to hear that the FDP is now supporting appropriate financing of the conversion of the barn," said Susanne Mittag, spokeswoman for agricultural policy for the parliamentary group, according to the report. However, the FDP links its concession to the animal welfare tax with a moratorium on conditions. "Farmers have to be sure that the requirements for animal welfare will not be increased again after a short time, otherwise their investments in the billions make no sense," said Hocker.
Green politician Renate Künast sees the moratorium on conditions critically with regard to the coalition agreement. "It has been agreed to create more higher standards with mandatory animal husbandry labeling and the amendment to the Animal Welfare Act, as well as transparency in competition," Künast told the "Tagesspiegel". This creates predictability and reliability for the farmers. "No one would seriously want to suggest that court judgments or EU law should not be implemented," the agricultural expert and lawyer points out.
