The Supreme Court held in a decision published on Monday that the 17-year deadline was too long and objectively unjustified. A corresponding request from the Burgenland state government was thus granted. The provision in the Animal Protection Act will be repealed on June 1, 2025.
The ban passed by the National Council in 2022 has been in effect for new systems since the beginning of 2023; for existing systems, a transition period until 2040 has been set in order to give agricultural businesses planning security and to protect investments made. According to the Constitutional Court, the duration of 17 years is not objectively justified given the balance between investment protection and animal protection. This means that the focus is one-sidedly on investment protection.
VfGH sees unequal competition
The Supreme Court is also critical of the fact that the transition period applies across the board to all companies, regardless of when the investments were made. The operators of new systems would also have higher costs than existing operations due to the higher standards that apply to them. The Constitutional Court held that this would lead to unequal competition, which would last 17 years with the transition period.
Burgenland was proven right at the second attempt. In December 2022, a first complaint against fully slatted floors in pig farming was rejected because it was “too narrow”. At that time, the contested provisions were changed by the federal government after the complaint was received, which is why, according to the Constitutional Court, the new regulations should also have been challenged. Last April, the country went to the Constitutional Court again against the transition period.
