Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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. 5(1)(b)(i) and (ii) 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 Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy — Whether compatible with Community law — (Council Directives 90/425, Art. 10(1), fourth subparagraph, and 91/68)

Summary

1. A Member State cannot prevent the importation of sheep intended for slaughter when they arrive on its territory, in respect of which Annex E to Directive 91/68 on animal health conditions 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 identical to that featuring on the model provided for slaughter. Second, Article 5(1)(b)(ii) 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, the rules of which are applicable to checks carried out in the Member State of destination, provides 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 accompanying document, that only animals that meet the requirements of Directive 90/425 and, by reference to the directives referred to in the annexes to that directive, those of Directive 91/68 are slaughtered. With regard to Article 5(1)(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 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 animals 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 animals originating in France, Ireland, Portugal or the United Kingdom were imported for slaughter, breeding or fattening, the health certificate accompanying those animals state that they had been born and raised on a farm in which no case of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy had been registered during the previous six years.

Pending adoption by the Commission of measures pursuant to Article 10(4) of Directive 90/425, the fourth subparagraph 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 Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, an independent scientific body responsible for advising the United Kingdom Government, 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 animals 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