15.4.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 114/96

1.

notes the Commission proposal on official controls and other official activities to ensure the application of food and feed law, and rules on animal health and welfare, plant health, plant reproductive material and plant protection products in view of the Regulation’s principal objectives i.e. to ensure a high level of human health protection, and to guarantee the smooth functioning of the internal market;

2.

welcomes the fact that the Commission acknowledges the need to strengthen the instruments available to the competent authorities in the Member States for the purposes of verifying compliance with EU legislation (controls, inspections and tests);

3.

confirms that the quality of the EU’s agricultural products is one of the principal factors determining the Common Agricultural Policy’s added value and represents one of its main assets on the global market. Effective monitoring of compliance with the rules of food and feed law and other rules on animal health and welfare, plant health, plant reproductive material and plant protection products serves to build a stable market which is based on public confidence in these products;

4.

it will only be possible to ensure competitiveness at both local and global level through constant improvements to the European agri-food market. Therefore welcomes this initiative which will serve to ensure the quality of agricultural products by means of various official controls and other official activities.

5.

considers that the regulation satisfies the need to ensure the broad-based competitiveness of businesses in the food chain which are subject to official controls performed by the competent authorities;

6.

notes that the proposal gives the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts in practically all regulatory areas (see Articles 15 to 24); rejects, in particular, the reasons given in Articles 15 to 25 and Articles 110, 132 and 133 of the proposal for authorising the adoption of delegated acts concerning specific rules for the performance of official controls. It is imperative that any rules with significant repercussions for countries’ supervisory activities and budgets be explicitly included in the Regulation. In addition, the Commission is asked to clarify, in connection with the adoption of delegated acts under Article 139, how it intends to implement the procedure described in recital 81, under which it is to carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level. The Committee believes that consultation with Member State experts should be included in Article 139 itself;

7.

confirms that it is useful and important to harmonise legislation on official controls to ensure a sufficient level of safety for food and feed and to ensure the free movement of goods on the internal market, to protect the internal market, free competition and consumer interests and information effectively against fraud and the influx of products which are non-compliant with European requirements and to maintain confidence in goods exported from or transported (transit) through the EU area;

8.

welcomes the fact that the Regulation incorporates a series of measures on official controls in the agri-food chain, including measures against pests of plants, rules governing the production, with a view to their placement on the market, of plant reproductive material and rules on animal by-products;

9.

confirms that the best way of providing effective protection for EU agri-food products is to ensure that all products sold in the EU, regardless of their origin, are subject to the same or equivalent controls in the area of hygiene and food safety and quality. Considers that in specific cases, the Regulation does not limit the right of the Member States to take action to provide a higher level of consumer protection by means of official controls;

10.

welcomes the simplifications in the rules concerning: the introduction of border control posts, which are governed by a common set of rules, the introduction of a Common Health Entry Document (CHED), which replaces the current system where different documents are used in each sector subject to control, the standardisation of documents and quality assurance with regard to their authenticity, and the introduction of an EU system of supervision for European official controls and its digitalisation;

11.

states that the rules currently applicable to official controls on residues of veterinary medicinal products are being replaced with rules that are based to a larger extent on risk assessments, without prejudice to the need to maintain appropriate conditions for health protection;

12.

welcomes the Commission’s proposal which includes, among others, rules geared towards making controls of products from third countries more stringent in order to address the challenges arising in the food chain and the related risks for the safety of EU citizens;

13.

welcomes the simplification in the rules, involving the replacement of border inspection posts (for animals and animal by-products), designated points of entry (for food and feed products of plant origin) and points of entry (for plants and plant products) by border control posts governed by a common set of rules. This approach will make it easier to protect the European market against an influx of non-compliant agri-food products;

14.

welcomes the creation of mechanisms in the area of ‘administrative assistance’, which will allow national control authorities to cooperate on the cross-border enforcement of rules in a uniform and consistent manner. Draws attention to the fact that infringements of EU rules will not only be pursued in the Member State in which the infringement was reported but also in the Member State in which the infringement took place;

15.

states that the new approach to controls based on risk assessment enables swift action and decisions to be taken on the various categories of products appropriate to the current level of knowledge;

16.

notes that the requirement to produce a report on every official control performed, and to make it available to the operator, significantly increases the burden on the competent authorities. This is unacceptable in view of the administrative burden and the resulting by no means negligible possibility of recourse to legal protection.

17.

in principle shares the Commission’s view that the interests of small enterprises should be taken into account when calculating fees. However, the general exemption, provided for in the legislative proposal, from the payment of fees for enterprises which employ fewer than ten people and whose annual turnover or annual balance sheet total is not more than EUR 2 million is at odds with the principles of Article 76 which are designed to ensure adequate provision of staff and financial resources. It is proposed that a provision corresponding to Article 27(6) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 be included in the new cost arrangements so that the Member States can themselves determine the form and the scope of the exemptions;

18.

Article 80 stipulates that consistently compliant operators should be granted more favourable conditions, when control fees are collected on the basis of a flat rate in accordance with Article 79(1)(a). Instead of this, a provision in accordance with Article 27(6) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 should be included in the new cost arrangements, so that the Member States can themselves determine the form and scope of the exceptions, including for micro-enterprises;

19.

draws attention to the need to ensure an effective (appropriate) level of protection for the data and information within the systems created for implementing the rules on redundancy and unauthorised access whilst at the same time taking into account the needs and obligation of the competent authorities to notify the public about significant events in the agri-food chain. Since in some Member States different bodies share responsibility for food chain controls, it is essential, when developing the information systems, that a single document be drawn up setting out all the different official control measures and that an integrated information management system for official controls be established and developed;

20.

alongside the expansion in the scope of the existing disciplinary measures, the Committee also welcomes the introduction of minimum compliance periods for measures involving the application of incentives in the form of exemptions or reductions in official fees for operators which meet or maintain the required level of compliance with the rules of food and feed law and other rules relating to the food chain; however, the decision on mandatory fees for routine controls should be left to the Member States;

21.

points out that the numerous powers to adopt delegated acts reduce the possibility for the Member States to participate and regions are therefore unable to anticipate whether additional staffing and financial costs will be entailed;