The animal welfare index TGI 35 L, developed in Austria, has proven to be a practical and accurate instrument for assessing animal welfare at a company level.

As part of the present project, this proven system for assessing animal welfare will be integrated into a comprehensive instrument for analyzing the effects of cross compliance in collaboration with the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. The interaction of effects from land use, producer income, the environment, biodiversity, animal welfare and food safety results in completely new and valuable statements for decision-makers in the European Union.

The results of this project flow directly into the overall EU CCAT project. This project evaluates the effects of cross-compliance measures in achieving environmental, sustainability and socio-economic goals in Europe. The results obtained provide valuable information for the discussion of CC policy at the European level.

A more detailed description of the overall CCAT project can be found at www.ccat.nl/UK/Cross compliance tool for animal welfare.

Main goal of the project is the development of an analytical tool for the evaluation of the effects of cross compliance (CC) concerning the appropriateness of housing systems. The investigation of the animal appropriateness of cattle and pig housing systems by means of a field-tested evaluation system (TGI 35 L) represents the basis for this purpose.