(Brussels Times) In a ruling on Thursday, the Belgian Constitutional Court supported the judgment of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) last December on banning animal slaughter without stunning.
The ruling follows a request from the Belgian court to CJEU for clarification on the legal issue and the correct interpretation of EU regulation No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing. The regulation allows ritual slaughter without stunning if it takes place in approved slaughterhouses but leaves also the door open for the EU member states to adopt stricter rules to protect animal welfare but not to ban ritual slaughter completely.
Exceptionally, the CJEU ruling contradicted a previous opinion of its advocate general who had recognized that a ban on ritual slaughter without stunning is an infringement on the rights of Belgian citizens to practice their religions freely and is incompatible with current EU law.
