There's to be another public meeting in Broadstairs today to discuss the next step in the campaign to stop live animal exports from the Port of Ramsgate.

Staff from the RSPCA, members of Compassion in World Farming and MP for Ramsgate, Laura Sandys, will all address the gathering.

Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East pictured left, will also be speaking and said he thinks Europe has a key role to play in fighting against the exports.

The member of the Green party has written to European Commissioner Dalli urging him to ensure better enforcement of EU animal welfare standards.

He added: "It's very inconsistent. To give an example: the number of EU inspectors to insure that this traffic is being carried out properly is two…there are 500 million people in Europe."

The MEP has also urged the Commissioner to consider an eight hour maximum journey limit for animal transportation.

He concluded: "There's quite a number of MEPs who are calling for the eight hour maximum journey as a pre-cursor but we are the Green party, we are saying there shouldn't be any live animal exports, we can do it all as meat."

But earlier this year Thanet council also called for a limit on the time that animals should be kept in captivity during transportation.

The council leader, Bob Bayford, made the request to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which looks after the welfare of animals when they are being transported.

In reply, DEFRA said that, although they would prefer animals to be "slaughtered as close as practicable to their point of production," the government "would not support setting an automatic eight-hour maximum journey time for all species of livestock".

Instead, DEFRA said that they will be supporting the idea of European discussions of setting a maximum journey time or maximum distance limit, which aims to stop animals being sent on unnecessarily long journeys to slaughter.

But Laura Sandys has secured a debate in Parliament to try and urge the government to stop the trade from going ahead.

This afternoon's meeting will take place at 12.30pm at The Baptist Hall in Broadstairs.