. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/EEC/208
25 July 2003
(03-3991)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
If applicable, name of local government involved:
2. Agency responsible:   Commission of the European Communities.  Health & Consumer
Protection Directorate-General Directorate E – Food Safety:  Plant Health, Animal Health
and Welfare, International questions
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where
applicable):  Bees ( Apis mellifera ), hives, queens with or without attendants, and bee-
keeping material
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:
Member States of the European Communitie s (EEC) and third countries exporting the
products concerned to the European Communities
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:   SANCO/10399/2003
Rev.5 Draft Commission Decision c oncerning the animal health conditions and certificate for
imports of bees/hives, queens and their attendants from certain third countries and repealingCommission D ecision 2000/462/EC
6. Description of content:  Member States shall only authorize the import of queen bees ( Apis
mellifera ) and queen bumble bees ( Bombus Spp. ):  if they comply with the guarantees laid
down in the health certificate matching the specimen shown in the Annex;  come from an
OIE member country, and in the form of consignments limited to a maximum of 20
accompanying attendants per queen.
7. Objective and rationale:  [    ] food safety, [ X ] animal health, [   ] plant protection,
[  ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or di sease,  [   ]  protect territory from other
damage from pests
8. International standard, gu ideline or recommendation:
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [ X ] Office International des Epizooties,
[   ] International Plant Prot ection Convention, [   ] None
If an international standard , guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:
The small hive beetle is not yet listed in th e list of diseases maintained by the Office
international des Epizooties (OIE).   For this reason, the extent of infestation in third countries
is not known.G/SPS/N/EEC/208
Page 2
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  European
Commission Document SANCO 10399/2003 Rev.5 (A vailable in all EC languages).  When
adopted it will be published at the Official Journal available at:  http://europa.eu.int/eur-
lex/en/oj/index.html
10. Proposed date of adoption:   End of September 2003
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   Seven days after publication
12. Final date for comments:  Sixty (60) days after the date of notification
Agency or authority designated to handle co mments:  [ X ] EC notification authority,
[   ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of
other body:
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notification authority,  [ X ] EC enquiry point,  or
address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: