Decision 2009/470/EC lays down the procedures governing the Union financial contribution for programmes for the eradication, control and monitoring of animal diseases and zoonoses.

Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have submitted to the Commission for approval amended programmes for the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie in relation to that amendment to Decision 2009/719/EC.

In addition, Hungary has submitted an amended programme for the eradication and monitoring of bluetongue modifying its activities in relation to the implementation of entomological surveillance.

Following the detection of the Bluetongue virus serotype 1 circulating in certain areas of its territory, Spain has submitted an amended programme for the eradication and monitoring of bluetongue to include compulsory vaccination in those areas in order to control that disease and prevent its spread.

Greece has submitted an amended programme for the eradication of rabies to define the areas where oral vaccination will be applied, following the discovery of rabies cases in its territory.

Following the recent conclusion of bilateral negotiations with Belarus on rabies cooperation, Poland has submitted an amended programme for the eradication control and monitoring of rabies to include oral vaccination activities in certain bordering areas in the territory of that third country, in order to protect the Union from the reintroduction of rabies through the movement of infected wild animals across the common borders.

The Commission has assessed those amended programmes from both a veterinary and a financial point of view. They were found to comply with relevant Union veterinary legislation and in particular with the criteria set out in Decision 2008/341/EC. The amended programmes should therefore be approved.

The approval by this Decision of the amended programmes has an impact on the amounts needed for carrying out the eradication, control and monitoring programmes approved by Implementing Decision 2012/761/EU. The maximum amount of the Union financial contribution for certain of those programmes should therefore be adjusted accordingly.

Implementing Decision 2012/761/EU should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,