Community legislation in the veterinary field provides that assembly centres for bovine, porcine, caprine and ovine animals, equine marshalling centres, dealers of those animals, poultry establishments, semen collection or storage centres and embryo collection or production teams and certain bodies, institutes and centres (‘animal health establishments’) are to comply with certain conditions and must be officially approved by Member States for intra-Community trade in certain live animals and their products, and in particular animal genetic materials, such as semen, ova and embryos.

Community legislation provides for different procedures with regard to the registration, listing, updating, transmission and publication of those animal health establishments. However, differences in the procedures make the listing and the updating complicated and the practical use of those lists for the competent control services and the concerned operators very difficult.

Therefore those procedures should be harmonised and provide for more systematic, coherent and uniform rules with regard to the five key elements of such procedures, namely registration, listing, updating, transmission and publication of the lists.

In addition, since it is for the Member States to control the conditions that must be fulfilled by the different animal health establishments in order to be listed, the responsibility for the drawing up of the lists should lie with the Member States and not the Commission.

Member States should therefore draw up and keep up-to-date lists of the animal health establishments concerned and make them available to the other Member States and to the public. In order to harmonise the model forms of those lists and the way to achieve simple access to up-to-date lists for the Community, common criteria need to be established under a comitology procedure.

Similarly to the rules applied to intra-Community trade, imports of semen, ova and embryos are regulated in such a way that the animal health establishments of origin in third countries are to fulfil certain conditions in order to minimise animal health risks. Accordingly, imports into the Community of such genetic materials should only be authorised from semen collection or storage centres and embryo collection or production teams officially approved for export to the Community by the competent authorities of the third country concerned in accordance with Community requirements and following Community veterinary inspections, where appropriate.

The co-existence of different procedures can lead to confusion and uncertainty amongst administrative officials in third countries, the farming industry and trade operators. Since it is for the third countries to check on the conditions that must be fulfilled by the different animal health establishments in order to be listed as approved for export to the Community in accordance with Community requirements, the current legal framework for the authorisation of those establishments should be harmonised and simplified, so that the responsibility for drawing up and updating the lists lies with the third countries and not the Commission. It is important to ensure that the level of animal health guarantees given by the third country concerned is not affected. The simplification measures are without prejudice to the right of the Commission to take safeguard measures if necessary.

For reasons of clarity and consistency of Community legislation, that procedure should also apply to authorities in third countries approved for the purpose of keeping herd books, flock books or stud books in accordance with Community zootechnical legislation.

In the veterinary field, the Commission is responsible for setting up and updating the lists of approved national reference laboratories and other approved laboratories on the basis of information provided by the Member States.

In accordance with Community legislation, amendments to those lists are made, following a request from a Member State and a decision adopted under a comitology procedure in accordance with Decision 1999/468/EC, or by the Council on a proposal from the Commission.

However, amendments to such lists are often of a purely formal nature, such as changes in the contact details of the national reference laboratories or the other approved laboratories in question.

The current practice has been to make only periodic updates of the lists of those laboratories to reduce the number of Commission decisions to be taken. However, that practice does not guarantee a rapid update of those lists. This could compromise the legal status of national reference laboratories and other approved laboratories.

Since the Member States designate the national reference laboratories and provide all the necessary details and updates, the responsibility for the drawing up of the lists of such laboratories should lie with the Member States and not the Commission. Similarly, the responsibility for drawing up lists of other approved laboratories should lie with the Member States.

Member States should therefore draw up and keep up to date the lists of the national reference laboratories and other approved laboratories concerned and make them available to the other Member States and the public. In order to harmonise the model of those lists and the way to achieve simple access to up-to-date lists for the Community, common criteria should be established under the comitology procedure.

However, where the lists concern approved laboratories situated in third countries, the Commission should continue to be responsible for drawing up and publishing the lists of such laboratories.

Moreover, certain Annexes to Directive 64/432/EEC, which are of purely technical nature such as those relating to animal health tests, the list of compulsory notifiable diseases or the animal health certificates, should be amended by means of the comitology procedure to be able to rapidly take account of new scientific developments. However, the amendment of Annexes laying down detailed conditions with regard to the disease-free status, which may have an impact on intra-Community trade, should be reserved for the Council.