PURPOSE: to modernise and improve the performance of
official controls to ensure the uniform application of the
agri-food chain rules across the EU.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the
European Parliament and of the Council on official controls and
other official activities performed to ensure the application of
food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health
and plant protection products (Official Controls
Regulation).
CONTENT: the Regulation replaces Regulation (EC) No
882/2004 on official controls by establishing a single set of rules
applicable to official controls for almost all sectors of the
agri-food chain.
The new rules aim to improve controls carried out by
Member States to ensure compliance with Union legislation on food
and feed safety, animal health and welfare, plant health and plant
protection products
The Regulation also lays down rules for the deliberate
release into the environment of Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs) for the purpose of food and feed production.
In addition, the Regulation shall apply where
fraudulent or misleading practices with respect to marketing
standards are detected during the controls carried out.
The new Regulation provides in particular
for:
- Improved control system:
official controls regularly, on a risk-basis and with
appropriate frequency, on all the sectors and in relation to all
operators, activities, animals and goods governed by Union
agri-food chain legislation. The authorities of the Member States
may regularly carry out unannounced official inspections and impose
dissuasive financial penalties on operators who commit intentional
violations.
- Role of the official veterinarian: Member States shall have the discretion to identify
the most appropriate staff to perform such controls. In certain
cases, where their specific skills are necessary to ensure a sound
outcome of the official controls, Member States shall be required
to refer to official veterinarians, plant health officers or other
specifically designated persons Member States shall also use
official veterinarians including for official controls on poultry
and lagomorphs.
- Third countries: a set
of common rules is provided for all control activities to be
carried out at Union borders on animals and products from third
countries requiring more attention to ensure health
protection.
- Financing: competent
authorities will collect fees or charges to cover the costs they
incur when performing official controls. In order to promote
compliance with Union legislation by all operators irrespective of
the method (based on actual costs or on a flat rate) that each
Member States has chosen for the calculation of the fees or
charges, when fees or charges are calculated on the basis of
overall costs incurred by the competent authorities over a given
period of time, and imposed on all operators irrespective of
whether they are subject to an official control during the
reference period, those fees or charges should be calculated so as
to reward operators with a consistent good record of compliance
with Union agri-food chain legislation.
- Whistleblowers:
effective mechanisms shall be put in place to enable the reporting
of actual or potential infringements of this Regulation, including
appropriate protection for persons reporting an infringement
against retaliation, discrimination or other types of unfair
treatment.
- Transparency: competent
authorities shall ensure a high level of transparency on the
controls they carry out (type, number and outcome). They shall also
be able to publish information on the rating of individual
operators based on the outcome of the controls they have
carried out.
Lastly, transitional measures have been introduced to
ensure that a number of delegated acts and implementing acts
essential for the proper application of the Regulation shall be
adopted before the date of application of the
Regulation.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 27.4.2017.
APPLICATION: from 14.12.2019 (unless otherwise
stated).
DELEGATED ACTS: the Commission is empowered to adopt
delegated acts to amend this Regulation concerning the references
to the European standards, as well as Annexes II and III to the
Regulation to take into account of legislative and technical and
scientific developments, and to supplement this Regulation with
specific rules governing official controls.
The power to adopt such acts shall be conferred on the
Commission for a period of five years (renewable) from 28 April
2017. The European Parliament or the Council shall have the right
to object to a delegated act within a period of two months
(extendable for two months) from the date of the notification of
the act.