Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies^f1, and in particular the third subparagraph of Article 5(2) thereof,

Whereas:

Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 provides that Member States, third countries or regions thereof (‘countries or regions’) are to be classified according to their bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) status into one of three categories: negligible BSE risk, controlled BSE risk and undetermined BSE risk.

The Annex to Commission Decision 2007/453/EC^f2 lists the BSE status of countries or regions according to their BSE risk.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) plays a leading role in the categorisation of OIE Member Countries and zones by their BSE risk, according to the provisions of its Terrestrial Animal Health Code (Terrestrial Code^f3).

On 27 May 2016, the OIE World Assembly of Delegates adopted Resolution No 20 titled ‘Recognition of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Risk Status of Member Countries’^f4. In addition to the countries previously recognised as having a negligible BSE risk status, that Resolution recognised Costa Rica, Germany, Lithuania, Namibia and Spain as having a negligible BSE risk.

The list of countries or regions in the Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC should therefore be amended to recognise the negligible BSE risk status of these countries.

The Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

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: