Dr. Gavinelli has been a policy official at the European Commission since 1999. He is currently in charge of the Animal Welfare Unit in the Health and Food Safety Directorate General of the European Commission. The Unit is responsible for the development and the coordination of animal welfare policies in the EU. The Unit constitutes the main hub in the EU Commission to develop policies in this area that are coordinated with several other policy areas such as: agriculture, internal market, environment, trade, fundamental rights. A vast international stakeholders` network relates to the Unit work and contributes to its policies.
Since 2001 Andrea has been the European member of the “Working Group on Animal Welfare” of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE-Paris). He is also co-chair of specific working groups on animal welfare established with EU trading partners in the framework of bilateral trade agreements such as: Chile, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand. Additionally, he is a member of the editorial board of the “FAO Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare.”
He has been the keynote speaker at several international events and author of several publications on the issue. In particular Andrea contributed to the volume of the Italian Treaty on Biology and Legislation related to Animal Law with a chapter on EU Law on animal welfare (Trattato di Biodiritto – Volume “La Questione Animale” a cura di Silvana Castiglione e Luigi Lombardi Vallauri).
Andrea received the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) European Animal Welfare Award for outstanding service for European Animal Welfare in 2014.