What's wrong with helping chickens

The British government "has added its dismay at the collapse of talks that have been taking place over several years aimed at improving the welfare of meat chickens in the EU".

The British poultry industry says it wants "all of Europe brought up to the same standards, because quite a lot of what is in that directive is a reflection of UK assurance production standards.”

At government level is this just a soft, feelgood initiative, or harder edged concern for the future of British poultry producers? Are we really in the position where we have to concern ourselves with poultry welfare standards in Poland, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania?

And if so, can we legitimately complain about restrictive initiatives from other countries? What's sauce for the chicken is ... well, you subsidiarity guys get the point.