This week, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C-311/22, Anklagemyndigheden v PO, Moesgaard Meat 2012 A/S on Danish slaughterhouses.
The issue before the Court were rather peculiar (and graphic). It had to make a determination on ‘how’ slaughterhouses should calculate the weight of animals it slaughters on a daily basis, to determine their compliance with national implementing measures, in line with the Industrial Emissions Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU).
To do so however, the Court had to consider another matter, which was to consider how much ‘dissection’ of animals has to occur, to determine the daily capacity of individual slaughterhouses.
The Court ruled that,
‘the weight to be taken into consideration is not that of the animals immediately after they are killed but their weight following exsanguination and evisceration and after removal of the tongue, bristles, hooves, genital organs, flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm.‘
para. 44.
To get to that interpretation, the Court looked at another piece of EU secondary law, Regulation No 1308/2013, which, whilst not applicable to the case at hand, provided for an interpretation of the the concept of a ‘carcass’ for the purposes of the activity of a slaughterhouse consisting of producing pig carcasses.
Accordingly, this meant that
‘a carcass is to be construed as referring to the processed dead body of an animal after substantial parts of it have been removed.’
para. 51.
The judgment of the CJEU in Case C-311/22, Anklagemyndigheden v PO, Moesgaard Meat 2012 A/S delivered on Thursday 22 February 2024 is available here.