On 1st January, new pig welfare legislation came into force across Europe. Under the latest EU Welfare Directive, a partial ban on sow stalls will mean the stalls can no longer be used after the first four weeks of pregnancy.

However, in an appalling repeat of January 2012, when the majority of EU states entered the New Year in violation of a ban on battery cages, 14 member states are still not compliant with the new regulation. Now, as with the cage ban, systems flouting the ban will not be able to trade with other EU partners, but concerns were expressed towards the end of 2012 that continued high demand from third countries could act as a disincentive for producers to get up to speed with new regulations.

Although sow stalls, also called gestation crates, have been banned in the UK and Sweden for over a decade, and EU states have had several years' notice to begin working towards compliance, producers in Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands are still in violation of the new rules. In France, compliance is as low as 33 percent.

The European Commission assured it would launch infraction procedures against non-compliant states from 1st January. Details of these procedures will become clear following the publication of the January Infringements Package on 24th of the month.

Philip Lymbery of animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming commented, "There is no excuse for this, given the lengthy phase-in period that all members of the EU have had to prepare for the 2013 ban. Eleven years is ample time for producers to adjust their systems, those who are non-compliant should not be playing the victim."

Lymbery continued that the degree of non-compliance showed many member states are not treating welfare legislation with the seriousness it deserves. He added that retailers in the UK should offer assurance that they will not deal with illegal suppliers "to demonstrate to non-compliant member states that this disregard of the law and of sows' welfare will not be tolerated."

60 percent of pig meat sold in the UK is imported. The UK National Pig Association has also urged retailers and consumers to ensure they purchase meat from a source that guarantees legal minimum welfare standards. NPA believes it could take the Commission more than a year to stamp out illegal production, based on the outcome of the 2012 cage ban.

Compassion's Philip Lymbery concluded that the situation in the EU is "cause for extreme concern: for the pigs’ welfare, for consumers and their apparent confusion and indeed for British farmers."