European Convention for the Protection of Animals during International Transport

All these conventions were based on animal welfare recommendations resulting from the latest scientific research in applied ethology.

On the other hand, this made oversight for the national authorities more complicated, and combined with a lack of effective monitoring mechanisms on the European level, the contents of the 1968 convention were eventually regarded and recognised as flawed, and in need of revision.

[3]: 59–60  In 1996, an extensive media campaign drew attention to serious violations in animal transport practices across Europe, compelling the Parties to act.

With the experience gained from 30 years of applying the 1968 convention and taking note of its shortcomings, as well as the conclusions from new scientific research done in that period, the Council of Europe revised the treaty with the cooperation of the European Union, which introduced very similar legal instruments.

[1] No Eastern Bloc state ever signed or ratified it until after the Revolutions of 1989: Czech Republic did so in 1998, Lithuania in 2003/2004.