92001E0608

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0608/01

by Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(1 March 2001)

Subject: Responsibility of national or local government for supervising animal protection

An official government report (Better animal protection, SOU 2000:108) published in Sweden in December 2000 states that the Swedish model, whereby animal protection is under the supervision at local level of the local authorities, does not meet the requirements of EU Directive 90/425/EEC(1). The author of the report maintains that, owing to EU requirements, the task of supervision must be removed from the local authorities and proposes that responsibility should pass to the government.

The assertion that the Swedish model does not meet EU requirements has been met with astonishment, not least by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities, which questions the report's claim. The Swedish Government, however, has been pressing for a number of years to take over responsibility for local supervision from the local authorities. Their own parliamentary group, however, is opposed, which has meant that the government has been unable to put forward proposals. It is suspected, therefore, that it is the government's own political ambitions which lie behind the report's conclusion rather than the EU directive.

Does the Commission consider that the Swedish model, under which the local authorities are responsible for local supervision, is contrary to any current EU directive?

(1) OJ L 224, 18.8.1990, p. 29.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(13 June 2001)

The Commission is not aware of the report mentioned by the Honourable Member.

Article 2 of Council Directive 90/425/EEC of 26 June 1990 concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internat market, provides the following definition of competent authorities:

competent authority shall mean the central authority of a Member State competent to carry out veterinary or zootechnical checks or any authority to which it has delegated that competence.

The Directive does not provide or ban any particular model of organisation to implement the veterinary legislation within the Member States, as it opens the possibility to the central authority to delegate its competence.

However, it should be recalled that according to the general principles of Community law it is for the Member States to ensure that Community legislation is implemented within their territory. Insofar as Community law does not include common rules to this effect, the national authorities when implementing legislation act in accordance with their own national law. However, this rule must be reconciled with the need to apply Community law uniformly(1).

(1) Court of Justice in Case 205-215/82 (Milchkontor), [1983] E.C.R. 2 633.