Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential to use Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which allows for trade restrictions on grounds of public morality among other reasons, to ban the import of animal fur while the UK is still a member of the Single Market.

The Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) places restrictions on the introduction of measures that impair the free movement of goods within the EU market. Where there are EU harmonising measures relevant to the movement of fur, including the Animal By-Products Regulation in respect of untreated fur and the Seal Products Regulation, any derogation from those in the form of a national restriction would need to meet the requirements of Article 114 of TFEU, or any specific safeguard measure included in the harmonising legislation. This would involve notifying the measures to the European Commission who would need to be satisfied that the issue is “specific to that Member State”, that it would not amount to a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade, or an obstacle to the functioning of the internal market.

To introduce a ban in the absence of such consent where it is needed would breach Article 114 of TFEU. Article 36 provides potential justifications for overriding the prohibition on restrictions on imports and measures of equivalent effect between Member States. These justifications cannot be used legally, however, where the measure constitutes a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade between Member States or where the EU has legislated on the matter in question.