Commission Decision 2007/777/EC2 lays down, inter alia, the conditions for imports into the Union of consignments of certain meat products and of treated stomachs, bladders and intestines which have undergone one of the treatments laid down in Part 4 of Annex II to that Decision (‘the commodities’), including a list of third countries or parts thereof from which imports into the Union of the commodities are authorised. More particularly, Part 2 of Annex II to Decision 2007/777/EC sets out the list of third countries or parts thereof from which imports into the Union of the commodities are authorised, provided that they have undergone the relevant treatment referred to in that Part of Annex II. Those treatments are aimed at eliminating certain animal health risks linked to the specific commodities. Part 4 of that Annex sets out a non-specific treatment ‘A’ and specific treatments ‘B’ to ‘F’ listed in descending order of severity of the animal health risk linked to the specific commodity.

The United Kingdom has provided the necessary guarantees required by Decision 2007/777/EC in order for the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey to be listed in Part 2 of Annex II to that Decision after the end of the transition period provided for in the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Withdrawal Agreement), without prejudice to the application of Union law to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement in conjunction with Annex 2 to that Protocol. Taking into account the guarantees provided by the United Kingdom, that third country and the Crown Dependencies should be included in Part 2 of Annex II to Decision 2007/777/EC.

However, since November 2020, the United Kingdom has confirmed a number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) of subtype H5N8 on its territory, certain of which will not have been resolved by 1 January 2021. Therefore, the whole of the territory of the United Kingdom cannot be considered as being free from the disease and in order to prevent the introduction of the HPAI virus into the Union, meat products and treated stomachs, bladders and intestines obtained from poultry, farmed feathered game (except ratites), farmed ratites and wild game birds from the area of the United Kingdom affected by HPAI and which the veterinary authorities of the United Kingdom has placed under restriction due to those outbreaks should undergo at least ‘treatment D’ as listed in Part 4 of Annex II to Decision 2007/777/EC.

Annex II to Decision 2007/777/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

As the transition period provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement ends on 31 December 2020, this Decision should apply from 1 January 2021.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,