On this day in vegan history · December 13, 2007
Animal Sentience Enters Europe's Core Law
In a monastery in Lisbon, 27 governments signed a treaty that quietly moved animals from a side protocol into the main text of European law.
The facts
- Signed
- 13 December 2007, Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon
- Entered into force
- 1 December 2009
- What moved
- Animal sentience language shifted from a 1997 Amsterdam protocol into Article 13 of the treaty text itself
- Scope
- Covers EU policy on agriculture, fisheries, transport, the internal market, research, and space
On 13 December 2007, leaders of the European Union's member states gathered at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon to sign the Treaty of Lisbon. Buried inside it was Article 13, a clause requiring the Union and its member states to pay full regard to animal welfare when making policy on agriculture, fisheries, transport, the internal market, research, and space. The idea itself was not new: a 1997 protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam had already called animals sentient beings. What changed in 2007 was placement. Lisbon lifted that language out of an annex and wrote it into the treaty's own body, the part governments cannot simply set aside.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
since animals are sentient beings
Article 13 TFEU, as introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon
Source: Nuffield Council on Bioethics -
pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals
European Commission, describing the obligation the Lisbon Treaty created
Source: European Commission
Why it still matters
A protocol is easy to ignore; a treaty article is not. Writing sentience into the EU's core law gave campaigners and courts a permanent hook to argue that animal welfare belongs in every policy debate, not just the ones with animals in the title.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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