THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Decision 97/132/EC of 17 December 1996 on the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and New Zealand on sanitary measures applicable to trade in live animals and animal products, and in particular Article 4 thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Annex V to the Agreement between the European Community and New Zealand on sanitary measures applicable to trade in live animals and animal products (‘the Agreement’) recognises the sanitary measures for fresh meat, meat products and certain other animal products traded with New Zealand. Depending on the equivalence or non-equivalence of those measures with those required by the Community, Annex VII of the Agreement provides that appropriate official health certificates should be used in the trade of fresh meat, meat products and certain other animal products with New Zealand.
(2)
Commission Decision 2003/56/EC lays down the certification requirements and provides models for official health certificates to be used for the importation from New Zealand of live animals and animal products. In cases where full equivalence of sanitary measures has been determined, simplified certificates may be used, models for which are set out in Annexes II to V to that Decision.
(3)
Account should be taken of Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 650/2003, and of recent acknowledgements of equivalence of sanitary measures for fresh meat, meat products, fishery products and certain other animal products traded with New Zealand.
(4)
Decision 2003/56/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.
(5)
The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: