BRUSSELS (Reuters) – An EU court on Thursday upheld a Belgian law requiring animals to be stunned before slaughter, rejecting challenges from Jewish and Muslim groups and paving the way for other countries to introduce similar restrictions.
Animal rights activists welcomed the decision, which limits some religious rites, but Israel’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, Emmanuel Nahshon, called it “a catastrophic decision, a blow to Jewish life in Europe.”
Jewish and Muslim associations claimed that the initial decree made in the Belgian region of Flanders in 2017 effectively banned them from their traditional ways of slaughtering animals.
They said that their methods of cutting the necks of animals with a sharp knife led to almost immediate death and that, traditionally, prior stunning was not allowed.
The Luxembourg court found that the Belgian decree was in line with EU law.
He ruled that the need to stun before sacrifice limited the ability of believers to exercise their right to manifest their religion.
But the judges considered that it limited only one aspect of the tradition, rather than banning the whole practice, and that this limitation met a general EU objective of promoting animal welfare.
The Belgian Constitutional Court, which had asked the EU court to rule on the matter, is now bound by the decision.
Ambassador Nahshon took to Twitter to condemn the ruling, saying: “Apparently, tolerance and diversity are empty words in the eyes of some Europeans.”
The Belgian Jewish umbrella association CCOJB has said it will continue its legal campaign against the decree.
“The European Union no longer protects its religious minorities,” she added. “The Court of Justice of the European Union allows Member States to go as far as banning religious slaughter in an authorized slaughterhouse.”
The Belgian campaign group Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA) said it was pleased with the ruling, which it said would allow other EU countries to introduce similar rules.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Andrew Heavens)