The veterinary certification requirements laid down in Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 take into account whether or not specific conditions are required due to the disease status of those third countries, territories, zones or compartments, including sampling and testing for different poultry diseases, as appropriate. Those specific conditions, as well as the model veterinary certificates required to accompany the commodities for imports into and transit through the Union, are set out in Part 2 of Annex I to that Regulation.

Israel has now informed the Commission that it intends to abolish its stamping-out policy for Newcastle disease for poultry kept in holdings located on the territory of Israel north of Route No 5. In addition, due to other priorities in the health sector, compliance with certain requirements for laboratory testing can no longer be guaranteed.

The list in the table set out in Part 1 of Annex I should therefore be amended in order to prohibit imports into and transit through the Union from the whole territory of Israel of live poultry and ratites, hatching eggs and meat of poultry and ratites, as well as eggs for processing. However, imports of meat of poultry under the specific conditions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, as amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/608, should continue to be authorised from the territory of Israel located south of Route No 5, where the Newcastle disease incidence is lower and a stamping-out policy is maintained.

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is authorised for imports of eggs and egg products into the Union. It has also requested authorisation for imports of meat of poultry into the Union. An audit carried out in January 2016 by the Commission concluded that that third country meets the requirements necessary for the veterinary certification of meat of poultry for imports into the Union. The entry for that third country in the table set out in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended.

Within the framework of the audit carried out in January 2016 concerning the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, it was noticed that this third country not only slaughters poultry which have been raised within its territory but also poultry that have either been imported from another third country listed for that commodity in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 under conditions at least equivalent to those in that Regulation or poultry that have previously been imported into its territory from a Member State.

The veterinary certification requirements for imports of meat of poultry (POU) from a third country listed in the table set out in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 as authorised for imports into the Union, refer to meat obtained from live poultry that were previously imported into the aforementioned third country from another third country listed in the table set out in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008. The veterinary certificate requirements do not, however, refer to meat obtained from live poultry imported from a Member State for subsequent slaughter in that third country, with the intention that the meat is then reimported into the Union.

Given the favourable animal health status of the Union, and the negligible risks for poultry health involved in such practices, the model veterinary certificate for meat of poultry (POU) set out in Part 2 of Annex 1 to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, should be amended in order to include a certification provision that the meat of poultry may be obtained from poultry that were previously imported from a Member State for subsequent slaughter.

In Part 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, a model veterinary certificate is set out for egg products (EP). In that model veterinary certificate, Part I of the Notes refers to the Harmonised System (HS) codes that are to be indicated in Box I.19. of Part I of that certificate.

Considering that the egg product ‘egg yolk’ can be classified in several sub-headings of heading HS 21.06, and not only in sub-heading 21.06.10, it is appropriate to amend the model veterinary certificate (EP) accordingly.

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

A reasonable transitional period should be allowed to elapse before the amended model veterinary certificates become mandatory in order to allow Member States and the industry to adapt to the new requirements set out in the amended model veterinary certificates.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,