Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97^f1, and in particular Article 4(2) thereof,

Having regard to the request submitted by the Netherlands,

Whereas:

The Netherlands have requested an extension to 12 months of the maximum period laid down for the application of eartags to bovine animals in nature reserves, due to practical difficulties.

Those animals are primarily kept for the purpose of nature protection and landscape conservation and not for production purposes. They are kept under extensive holding conditions and in free range where calves stay always close to their mother.

It is justified to take account of the Dutch request, provided that the extension of the maximum period for tagging does not affect the quality of information provided by the Dutch database for bovine animals and that there is no movement of bovine animals to which eartags have not been applied.

In the case of animals, which have not been tagged until the age of 6 months, the identity of the mother should be verified by a DNA test. Taking this additional guarantee into account the maximum period for tagging should not be longer than 12 months.

This derogation should be strictly restricted to a limited number of holdings, which have been separately authorised according to defined criteria as nature reserves and communicated to the Commission.

The Dutch authorities undertake not to extend this derogation to the identification and registration system of bovine animals.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: