PURPOSE: to simplify procedures of listing and publishing information in the veterinary and zootechnical fields.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Directive.
CONTENT: the purpose of this proposal is:
(1) to harmonise and simplify the current procedures for updating and publishing lists of certain approved animal health establishments and breeding organisations in Member States and information to be provided by Member States regarding equine competition.
The procedures should be harmonised and provide for more systematic, coherent and uniform rules with regard to the five key elements of such procedures, namely registration, listing, updating, transmission and publication of the lists.
In addition, since it is for the Member States to control the conditions that must be fulfilled by the different animal health establishments in order to be listed, the responsibility for the drawing up of the lists should lay with the Member States and not the Commission. Member States should therefore draw up and keep up-to-date lists of the establishments concerned and make them available to the other Member States and to the public. In order to harmonise the model forms of those lists and the way to achieve simple access to up-to-date lists for the Community, common criteria need to be established under a comitology procedure.
(2) to harmonise and simplify the current procedures for updating and publishing lists of certain approved animal health establishments and authorities approved for the purpose of keeping a herd book, a flock book or a studbook in third countries.
The current legal framework for the authorisation of those establishments should be harmonised and simplified, so that the responsibility for drawing up and updating the lists lies with the third countries and not the Commission. The different existing procedures should therefore be replaced by a procedure under which the competent authorities of the third countries draw up, keep up-to-date the lists and communicate them to the Commission. The Commission should inform the Member States about these lists and makes them available to the public for information purposes. In the case of concerns with regard to the lists communicated by the third countries, adoption of safeguard measures is to be taken in accordance with Council Directive 97/78/EC.
(3) to simplify the current procedures for updating and publishing lists of certain national reference laboratories and other approved laboratories.
The current practice has been to make only periodic updates of the lists of those laboratories and this practice does not guarantee a rapid update of the lists of approved laboratories. Since the Member States designate the national reference laboratories and provide all the necessary details and updates, the responsibility for the drawing up of the lists should lay with the Member States and not the Commission. The same should apply to other approved laboratories in the Member States.
Member States shall therefore draw-up and keep up-to-date the lists of national reference laboratories and other approved laboratories concerned and make them available to the other Member States and the public. In order to harmonise the model of those lists and the way in which to achieve a simple access to up-to-date lists for the Community, common criteria need to be introduced under the comitology procedure. However, where the lists concern approved laboratories situated in third countries, the Commission should continue to be responsible for drawing up and publishing the lists of such laboratories.
Consequently, it is proposed to amend Directives 64/432/EEC, 77/504/EEC, 88/407/EEC, 88/661/EEC, 89/361/EEC, 89/556/EEC, 90/427/EEC, 90/428/EEC, 90/429/EEC, 90/539/EEC, 91/68/EEC, 92/35/EEC, 92/65/EEC, 92/66/EEC, 92/119/EEC, 94/28/EC, 2000/75/EC, 2001/89/EC, 2002/60/EC and 2005/94/EC as well as Decision 2000/258/EC.