Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/2113
of 16 December 2020
amending Annex I to Decision 2004/3/EC authorising, in respect of the marketing of seed potatoes in all or part of the territory of certain Member States, more stringent measures against certain diseases than are provided for in Annexes I and II to Council Directive 2002/56/EC, as regards the entry for the United Kingdom
(notified under document C(2020) 9306)
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Whereas:
Directive 2002/56/EC provides that, in respect of the marketing of seed potatoes in all or part of the territory of one or more Member States, the Commission is to authorise more stringent measures than those provided for in Annexes I and II thereto to be taken against harmful organisms which do not exist in those regions or which appear particularly harmful to crops in those regions.
In accordance with 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), and in particular Article 5(4) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in conjunction with Annex 2 to that Protocol, Directive 2002/56/EC, as well as the Commission acts based on it, applies to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland after the end of the transition period provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement. For that reason, at the end of the transition period only Northern Ireland should be listed as a region in column 2 of Annex I to Decision 2004/3/EC.
Annex I to Decision 2004/3/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,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: