Directive 2014/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Council Directive 64/432/EEC as regards computer databases which are part of the surveillance networks in the Member States

27.6.2014 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 189/161
DIRECTIVE 2014/64/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 15 May 2014
amending Council Directive 64/432/EEC as regards computer databases which are part of the surveillance networks in the Member States
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 43(2),
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),
Whereas:
(1) Council Directive 64/432/EEC (3) applies to trade in bovine animals and swine within the Union. It provides that the competent authority in a Member State may introduce a system of surveillance networks. Those networks include a computer database which is to contain, as a minimum, a number of elements laid down in Directive 64/432/EEC, including the identification code of each animal.
(2) Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) establishes a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals. It requires as a general rule that the two official means of identification allocated to an animal bear the same identification code. However, during the initial phase of adjustment to the use of electronic identifiers as an official means of identification, it could not be excluded that, in certain cases, technical limitations related to the configuration of an animal’s original identification code could prevent the reproduction of that code on an electronic identifier. This could occur where the characters forming an animal’s existing identification code prevent that code from being converted into an electronic format. Therefore, Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 provides for specific transitory derogations to allow the application of an electronic identifier also to those animals, provided that full traceability is ensured and that the animals can be identified individually, including the holding on which they were born. The possibility of using such electronic identifiers should be reflected in the list of elements of the computer databases laid down in Directive 64/432/EEC.
(3) In the interest of consistency of Union legislation, the type of electronic identifier, if applied to the animals, should also be added to the list of elements to be included in the computer databases laid down in Directive 64/432/EEC.
(4) Directive 64/432/EEC should therefore be amended accordingly,