THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 652/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 laying down provisions for the management of expenditure relating to the food chain, animal health and animal welfare, and relating to plant health and plant reproductive material, amending Council Directives 98/56/EC, 2000/29/EC and 2008/90/EC, Regulations (EC) No 178/2002, (EC) No 882/2004 and (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Decisions 66/399/EEC, 76/894/EEC and 2009/470/EC, and in particular Article 36(5) thereof.
Whereas:
(1)
Regulation (EU) No 652/2014 lays down, inter alia, provisions for the management of expenditure relating to the food chain and animal health and requirements for the submission and the content of the national programmes for the eradication, control and surveillance of animal diseases and zoonoses.
(2)
The first paragraph of Article 14 of Regulation (EU) No 652/2014 provides that each year, by 30 April, Member States are to submit to the Commission, for each approved annual or multiannual national programme, an annual detailed technical and financial report covering the previous year.
(3)
The second paragraph of Article 14 of Regulation (EU) No 652/2014 provides that each year, by 31 August, Member States are to submit to the Commission, for each approved national programme, an intermediate financial report.
(4)
Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 652/2014 provides that each year, by 30 April, Member States are to submit to the Commission, for each approved national programme, a payment request concerning the programmes implemented the previous year.
(5)
Article 5 of Commission Implementing Decision 2014/288/EU provides that for programmes implemented as of 1 January 2015 intermediate and final reports are to be submitted online by Member States using the corresponding standard electronic templates provided by the Commission (except for the programmes related to certain aquaculture diseases).
(6)
Article 4 of Implementing Decision 2014/288/EU defines the information which is to be provided in the reports.
(7)
To be in line with evolving Union legislation, the electronic standard templates for intermediate and final reports, including the payment requests, provided online on the Commission's website should be used for veterinary programmes on African swine fever, avian influenza, bluetongue, bovine brucellosis, sheep and goat brucellosis, classical swine fever, rabies, Salmonella infection in certain poultry populations, bovine tuberculosis and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, to facilitate necessary modifications or including further details. The Commission will inform and discuss with Member States all necessary modifications of the electronic standard templates in the framework of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed. The revised electronic standard templates, in addition to being available on the Commission's website, will be sent to all Member States at the latest during the first week of June (intermediate reports) and at the latest during the first week of March (final reports and payment requests) of the concerned year.
(8)
For other diseases not included in electronic standard templates and for aquaculture diseases the use of non-electronic standard templates is considered to be the appropriate tool for submission of the reports, given the low number of approved programmes in the last years, which does not require the development of specific electronic templates.
(9)
For the sake of clarity, Implementing Decision 2014/288/EU should therefore be repealed and replaced by this Decision.
(10)
The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: