Legal provisions of COM(1997)103 - System for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(1997)103 - System for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(1997)103  |
| date | April 21, 1997 |
Contents
TITLE I -
Article 1
2. This Title shall apply without prejudice to Community rules for disease eradication or control purposes and without prejudice to Directive 91/496/EEC and Regulation (EEC) No 3508/92. However, those provisions of Directive 92/102/EEC which relate specifically to bovine animals shall no longer apply from the date on which those animals must be identified in accordance with this Title.
Article 2
- 'animal` shall mean a bovine animal within the meaning of Article 2 of Directive 97/12/EC,
- 'holding` shall mean any establishment, construction or, in the case of an open-air farm, any place situated within the territory of the same Member State, in which animals covered by this Regulation are held, kept or handled,
- 'keeper` shall mean any natural or legal person responsible for animals, whether on a permanent or on a temporary basis, including during transportation or at a market,
- 'competent authority` shall mean the central authority or authorities in a Member State responsible for, or entrusted with, carrying out veterinary checks and implementing this Title or, in the case of the monitoring of premiums, the authorities entrusted with implementing Regulation (EC) No 3508/92.
Article 3
(a) eartags to identify animals individually;
(b) computerized databases;
(c) animal passports;
(d) individual registers kept on each holding.
The Commission and the competent authority of the Member State concerned shall have access to all information under this Title. The Member States and the Commission shall take the measures necessary to ensure access to this data for all parties concerned, including consumer organizations having a particular interest which are recognized by the Member State, provided that the data confidentiality and protection prescribed by national law are ensured.
Article 4
2. The eartag shall be applied within a period to be determined by the Member State as from the birth of the animal and in any case before the animal leaves the holding on which it was born. That period may not be longer than 30 days up to and including 31 December 1999, and not longer than 20 days thereafter.
However, at the request of a Member State and in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10, the Commission may determine the circumstances in which Member States may extend the maximum period.
No animal born after 1 January 1998 may be moved from a holding unless it is identified in accordance with this Article.
3. Any animal imported from a third country which has passed the checks laid down in Directive 91/496/EEC and which remains within Community territory shall be identified on the holding of destination by an eartag complying with the requirements of this Article, within a period to be determined by the Member State of at most 20 days of undergoing the aforesaid checks, and in any event before leaving the holding. However, it is not necessary to identify the animal if the holding of destination is a slaughterhouse situated in the Member State where such checks are carried out and the animal is slaughtered within 20 days of undergoing the checks.
The original identification established by the third country shall be recorded in the computerized database provided for in Article 5 or, if this is not yet fully operational, in the registers provided for in Article 3, together with the identification code allocated to it by the Member State of destination.
4. Any animal from another Member State shall retain its original eartag.
5. No eartag may be removed or replaced without the permission of the competent authority.
6. The eartags shall be allocated to the holding, distributed and applied to the animals in a manner determined by the competent authority.
7. Not later than 31 December 2000 the Council, acting on the basis of a report from the Commission accompanied by any proposals, shall decide on the possibility of introducing electronic identification arrangements in the light of progress achieved in this field.
Article 5
The computerized databases shall become fully operational no later than 31 December 1999, after which they shall store all data required pursuant to the aforementioned Directive.
Article 6
However, at the request of a Member State and in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10, the Commission may determine the circumstances under which the maximum period may be extended.
2. Whenever an animal is moved, it shall be accompanied by its passport.
3. By way of derogation from the first sentence of paragraph 1 and from paragraph 2, Member States:
- which have a computerized database which the Commission deems to be fully operational before 1 January 2000 in accordance with Article 5 may determine that a passport is to be issued only for animals intended for intra-Community trade and that those animals shall be accompanied by their passports only when they are moved from the territory of the Member State concerned to the territory of another Member State, in which case the passport shall contain information based on the computerized database.
In these Member States, the passport accompanying an animal imported from another Member State shall be surrendered to the competent authority on its arrival,
- may until 1 January 2000 authorize the issue of collective animal passports for herds moved within the Member State concerned provided that such herds have the same origin and destination and are accompanied by a veterinary certificate.
4. In the case of the death of an animal, the passport shall be returned by the keeper to the competent authority within seven days after the death of the animal. If the animal is sent to the slaughterhouse, the operator of the slaughterhouse shall be responsible for returning the passport to the competent authority.
5. In the case of animals exported to third countries, the passport shall be surrendered by the last keeper to the competent authority at the place where the animal is exported.
Article 7
- keep an up-to-date register,
- once the computerized database is fully operational, report to the competent authority all movements to and from the holding and all births and deaths of animals on the holding, along with the dates of these events, within 15 days and, as from 1 January 2000, within seven days of the event occurring. However, at the request of a Member State and in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 10, the Commission may determine the circumstances in which Member States may extend the maximum period.
2. Where applicable and having regard to Article 6, each animal keeper shall complete the passport immediately on arrival and prior to departure of each animal from the holding and ensure that the passport accompanies the animal.
3. Each keeper shall supply the competent authority, upon request, with all information concerning the origin, identification and, where appropriate, destination of animals which he has owned, kept, transported, marketed or slaughtered.
4. The register shall be in a format approved by the competent authority, kept in manual or computerized form, and be available at all times to the competent authority, upon request, for a minimum period to be determined by the competent authority but which may not be less than three years.
Article 8
Article 9
Article 10
(a) provisions concerning eartags;
(b) provisions concerning the passport;
(c) provisions concerning the register;
(d) minimum level of controls to be carried out;
(e) application of administrative sanctions;
(f) transitional provisions for the start-up period of the system.
Article 11
' . . . and Regulation (EC) No 820/97`.
TITLE II -
Article 12
However, this Title shall not affect:
- compulsory indications as referred to in Article 3 (1) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC with the exception of point 7,
- the indications that are protected in accordance with Regulations (EEC) No 2081/92 and (EEC) No 2082/92,
- the indications as referred to in Regulations (EEC) No 1208/81 and (EEC) No 1186/90,
- indications relating to the health mark as provided for in Directive 64/433/EEC and other similar indications provided for in the relevant veterinary legislation,
- labels containing only information which can be easily checked at the point of sale, such as, in particular, the indication of product weight or the name of the cut.
2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, the following shall continue to apply:
- Council Regulation No 26 of 4 April 1962 applying certain rules of competition to production of and trade in agricultural products (12),
- Council Directive 64/433/EEC of 26 June 1964 on health conditions for the production and marketing of fresh meat (13),
- Council Directive 79/112/EEC of 18 December 1978 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer (14),
- Council Directive 93/99/EEC of 29 October 1993 on additional measures concerning the official control of foodstuffs (15),
- Council Directive 94/65/EC of 14 December 1994 laying down the requirements for the production and placing on the market of minced meat and meat preparations (16),
- Council Regulation (EEC) No 1208/81 of 28 April 1981 determining the Community scale for the classification of carcases of adult bovine animals (17),
- Council Regulation (EEC) No 1186/90 of 7 May 1990 extending the scope of the Community scale for the classification of carcases of adult bovine animals (18),
- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 of 14 July 1992 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs (19),
- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2082/92 of 14 July 1992 on certificates of specific character for agricultural products and foodstuffs (20),
- Council Regulation (EEC) No 2067/92 of 30 June 1992 on measures to promote and market quality beef and veal (21).
Article 13
- 'beef` shall mean all products falling within CN codes 0201, 0202, 0206 10 95 and 0206 29 91,
- 'labelling` shall mean the attachment of a label to an individual piece or pieces of meat or to their packaging material, including the supply of information to the consumer at the point of sale,
- 'organization` shall mean a group of operators from the same or different parts of the beef trade.
Article 14
Such specifications shall indicate:
- the information to be included on the label,
- the measures to be taken to ensure the accuracy of the information,
- the control system which will be applied at all stages of production and sale, including the controls to be carried out by an independent body recognized by the competent authority and designated by the operator or the organization. These bodies shall comply with the criteria set out in European Standard EN/45011 not later than 31 December 1999,
- in the case of an organization, the measures to be taken in relation to any member which failed to comply with the specifications.
Member States may decide that controls by an independent body can be replaced by controls by a competent authority. The competent authority shall in that case have at its disposal the qualified staff and resources necessary to carry out the requisite controls and shall submit to the Commission its working plan as well as an activity report.
The costs of controls provided for under this Title shall be borne by the operator or organization using the labelling system.
2. The approval of any specification shall be subject to the assurance of the competent authority, obtained on the basis of a thorough examination of its components as referred to in paragraph 1, of the proper and reliable functioning of the labelling system envisaged and, in particular, of its control system. A competent authority shall refuse any specification which does not ensure a link between, on the one hand, the identification of the carcase, quarter or pieces of meat and, on the other hand, the individual animal or, where this is sufficient to enable the accuracy of the information on the label to be checked, the animals concerned.
Specifications which provide for labels containing misleading or insufficiently clear information shall also be refused.
3. Where the production and/or sale of beef takes place in two or more Member States, the competent authorities of the Member States concerned shall examine and, if appropriate, approve the specifications submitted in so far as the elements contained therein relate to operations taking place within their respective territories. In such case, the Member State concerned shall recognize the approvals granted by any other Member State concerned.
If, within a period to be fixed in accordance with Article 18, counting from the day following the date of submission of the application, approval has not been refused or given, or supplementary information has not been asked for, the specification shall be considered to be approved by the competent authority.
4. Where the competent authorities of all the Member States concerned approve the specification submitted, the operator or organization concerned shall be entitled to label beef, provided that the label contains its name or logo.
5. By way of derogation from the preceding paragraphs, the Commission, following the procedure referred to in Article 18, may provide for an accelerated or simplified procedure for approval in specific cases, in particular for beef in small retail packages or primal beef cuts in individual packages, labelled in a Member State according to an approved specification and introduced into the territory of another Member State, provided that no information is added to the initial label.
6. Any entitlement shall apply without prejudice to Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 and to Article 13 of Regulation (EEC) No 2082/92.
Article 15
2. The validity within the Community of any approval granted by a third country shall be subject to prior notification by the third country to the Commission of:
- the competent authority which has been designated,
- the procedures and criteria to be followed by the competent authority when examining the specification,
- each operator and organization to which the competent authority has granted approval of their specification.
The Commission shall transmit these notifications to the Member States.
Where, on the basis of the above notifications, the Commission reaches the conclusion that the procedures and/or criteria applied in a third country are not equivalent to the standards set out in this Regulation, the Commission shall, after consultation with the third country concerned, decide that approvals granted by the third country concerned shall not be valid within the Community.
Article 16
- Member State, third country or holding of birth,
- Member States, third countries or holdings where all or any part of fattening took place, with partial fattening having to be specified,
- Member State, third country or slaughterhouse where slaughter took place,
- identification number and sex of the animal,
- method of fattening or other information relating to feeding,
- information on slaughtering, such as the age at slaughter and the date of slaughter or the period during which the beef was matured,
- any other information which the operator or the organization wishes to indicate and to which the competent authority concerned has agreed.
If beef originates from an animal born, raised and slaughtered in one and the same Member State, the mention of that Member State on the label shall suffice.
2. Where beef from different animals is mixed, the label shall contain only information which is common to all such beef.
3. Every label shall contain a reference number or reference code ensuring the link provided for in the second sentence of Article 14 (2). This number may be the identification number of the animal concerned.
Article 17
Article 18
Article 19
On the basis of the report provided for in paragraph 3, the Council, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, shall therefore take a decision before 1 January 2000 on the general rules for a compulsory beef-labelling system to apply as from that date, in accordance with the Community's international commitments.
2. Save where otherwise decided by the Council, the labelling system compulsory as from 1 January 2000 shall, in accordance with the Community's international commitments, in addition to the labelling information referred to in Article 16 (3), also require indication of the Member State or third country where the animal from which the beef is derived was born, the Member States or third countries where the animal was raised and the Member State or third country where the animal was slaughtered.
3. Member States shall submit to the Commission, by 1 May 1999, reports on the implementation of the labelling system for beef. The Commission shall submit to the Council a report on the situation regarding the implementation of beef labelling systems in the different Member States.
4. However, Member States where there is a sufficiently developed identification and registration system for bovine animals may before 1 January 2000 impose a compulsory labelling system for beef from animals born, fattened and slaughtered on their territory. Furthermore, they may decide that one or more of the items of information referred to in Article 16 (1) and (2) must be indicated on labels.
5. A compulsory system as provided for in paragraph 4 must not lead to any disruption of trade between the Member States.
The implementation arrangements applicable in those Member States intending to apply the provisions of paragraph 4 shall require prior approval from the Commission.
6. By 1 January 2000, the Council, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, shall take a decision as to whether compulsory indication of data other than those provided for in paragraph 2 and extension of the scope of this Regulation to products other than those indicated in the first indent of Article 13 are possible and desirable.
Article 20
TITLE III -
Article 21
Any sanctions imposed by the Member State shall be proportionate to the gravity of the breach. The sanctions may involve, where justified, a restriction on movement of animals to or from the holding of the keeper concerned.
Article 22
It shall apply from 1 July 1997.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.