Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:594
Date: 2002-10-17
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Sheepmeat and goatmeat;Veterinary legislation
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: United Kingdom

SUMMARY — CASE C-220/01 
Summary of the Judgment 
1. Agriculture — Approximation of laws concerning animal health — Veterinary and 
zootechnical checks in intra-Community trade in live animals and products of animal 
origin •— Importation of sheep for slaughter accompanied by a health certificate not 
corresponding to that use —• Refusal by the Member State of destination to allow the 
importation to proceed despite the production of a certificate containing all 
information necessary for purposes of slaughter— Not permissible 
(Council Directives 90/425, Art. S(l)(b)(i) and (it) and 91/68, Annex E) 
2. Agriculture •—· Approximation of laws concerning animal health •—• Veterinary and 
zootechnical checks in intra-Community trade in live animals and products of animal 
origin — Importation of bovine and ovine animals originating in France, Ireland, 
Portugal and the United Kingdom — National protective measures against Trans­
missible Spongiform Encephalopathy — Whether compatible with Community law 
(Council Directives 90/425, Art. 10(1), fourth subparagraph, and 91/68) 
1. A Member State cannot prevent the 
importation of sheep intended for 
slaughter when they arrive on its terri­
tory, in respect of which Annex E to 
Directive 91/68 on animal health con­
ditions governing intra-Community 
trade in ovine and caprine animals 
provides for a model health certificate, 
solely on the ground that they are 
accompanied by a health certificate of 
the model established by that annex 
which is provided for trade between 
Member States in ovine and caprine 
animals intended for fattening. 
In the first place, the model provided 
for fattening contains wording ident­
ical to that featuring on the model 
provided for slaughter. Second, 
Article 5(l)(b)(ii) of Directive 90/425 
concerning veterinary and zootechnical 
checks applicable in intra-Community 
trade in certain live animals and prod­
ucts with a view to the completion of 
the internal market, the rules of which 
are applicable to checks carried out in 
the Member State of destination, pro­
vides that, where animals are intended 
for a slaughterhouse placed under the 
supervision of an official veterinarian, 
the latter must ensure, in particular on 
the basis of the certificate or accom­
panying document, that only animals 
that meet the requirements of Directive 
90/425 and, by reference to the direc­
tives referred to in the annexes to that 
directive, those of Directive 91/68 are 
s l augh t e r ed . With regard to 
Article 5(l)(b), second subparagraph, 
of Directive 90/425, this provides that, 
in the case in which the animals are 
intended for dealers, establishments, 
holdings, centres or organisations, 
those receiving the animals must, inter 
alia, ensure that they are accompanied 
by the requisite certification, notify the 
competent authority of any irregularity 
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or anomaly and, in the latter case, 
isolate the animals in question until 
that authority has decided what is to be 
done with them. 
It follows from those provisions that, 
when animals are accompanied by 
valid health certificates which do not 
correspond to the use to which the 
animals are to be put but which include 
all the information necessary for that 
use, the competent authorities of a 
Member State of destination cannot 
prevent the importation of those ani­
mals by relying on the mere error as to 
the certificate. 
(see paras 44, 48, 50, 52-53, operative 
part 1) 
2. At the time when the ovine animals 
originating in the United Kingdom 
were being imported into the Member 
State in question, Community law, and 
more particularly Directive 91/68 on 
animal health conditions governing 
intra-Community trade in ovine and 
caprine animals and Article 10 of 
Directive 90/425 concerning veterinary 
and zootechnical checks applicable in 
intra-Community trade in certain live 
animals and products with a view to 
the completion of the internal market, 
did not preclude a Member State from 
imposing a requirement under national 
law that, when bovine and ovine ani­
mals originating in France, Ireland, 
Portugal or the United Kingdom were 
imported for slaughter, breeding or 
fattening, the health certificate accom­
panying those animals state that they 
had been born and raised on a farm in 
which no case of Transmissible Spongi­
form Encephalopathy had been regis­
tered during the previous six years. 
Pending adoption by the Commission 
of measures pursuant to Article 10(4) 
of Directive 90/425, the fourth sub­
paragraph of Article 10(1) of that 
directive allows a Member State of 
destination to adopt interim protective 
measures on serious public or animal 
health grounds. The rules in question 
were adopted at a time when there was 
no Community-law provision that took 
into consideration the possibility of 
contamination of ovine animals by the 
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy 
prion and after the publication of a 
statement by the Spongiform Encepha­
lopathy Advisory Committee, an inde­
pendent scientific body responsible for 
advising the United Kingdom Govern-
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SUMMARY — CASE C-220/01 
ment, which could have been regarded 
as being tantamount to an outbreak of 
a zoonosis, disease or other cause likely 
to constitute a serious hazard to ani­
mals or to human health within the 
terms of Article 10 of Directive 90/425 
and as justifying, in accordance with 
that provision, the adoption of such a 
measure. In adopting those rules, the 
Member State concerned therefore 
complied with all of the conditions laid 
down in Article 10 of that directive. 
(see paras 70-72, 74, 82-83, 
operative part 2) 
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