Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

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

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007^f1, and in particular Article 20(p) thereof,

Whereas:

Point 1 of Section B.IV of Annex IV to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 provides that, for the classification of pig carcasses, the lean-meat content has to be assessed by means of grading methods authorised by the Commission and only statistically proven assessment methods based on the physical measurement of one or more anatomical parts of the pig carcass may be authorised. The authorisation of grading methods should be subject to compliance with a maximum tolerance for statistical error in assessment. That tolerance is defined in Part A of Annex V to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1182^f2.

Commission Decision 2008/364/EC^f3 authorises the use of four methods for grading pig carcasses in Lithuania.

Unless explicitly authorised by Commission Implementing Decision, modifications of the apparatus or grading methods should not be allowed.

Lithuania has requested the Commission to withdraw the authorisation of the methods ‘Hennessy Grading Probe (HGP7)’ and ‘IM-03’ from the list of methods authorised to grade pig carcasses on its territory, since the methods are no longer in use there.

Lithuania has also requested the Commission to authorise one new method (Fat-O-Meat’er II). For that purpose, Lithuania has presented a detailed description of the dissection trial, indicating the principles on which this new method is based, the results of its dissection trial and the equations used for assessing the percentage of lean meat in the protocol provided for in Article 11(3) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1182. Lithuania has also requested the Commission to authorise updated formulas for two methods (Fat-O-Meat’er S70 and Manual method-ZP) already authorised by Decision 2008/364/EC for grading pig carcasses on its territory.

Examination of that request has revealed that the conditions for authorising the new grading method and updating equations for the other two are fulfilled. These grading method and formulas should therefore be authorised in Lithuania.

For reasons of clarity and legal certainty Decision 2008/364/EC should therefore be repealed.

In order to allow operators sufficient time to adapt to the technical requirements of introducing new devices and new equations, the methods for grading pig carcasses authorised under Decision 2008/364/EC should continue to apply until 30 April 2021.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: