(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 (3) lays down a list of third countries, territories, zones or compartments from which poultry and poultry products (‘the commodities’) may be imported into and transit through the Union and the respective veterinary certification requirements. It provides that the commodities are only to be imported into and transit through the Union from the third countries, territories, zones or compartments listed in columns 1 and 3 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I thereto.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 also lays down the conditions for a third country, territory, zone or compartment, from which commodities are imported into the Union, to be considered as free from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

(3)

The United Kingdom has provided the necessary guarantees required by Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 in order for the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependency of Guernsey to be listed in Part 1 of Annex I to that Regulation after the end of the transition period provided for in the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Withdrawal Agreement), without prejudice to the application of Union law to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement in conjunction with Annex 2 to that Protocol. Taking into account the guarantees provided by the United Kingdom, that third country and the Crown Dependency of Guernsey should be included in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008.

(4)

However, since November 2020, the United Kingdom has confirmed a number of HPAI outbreaks of subtype H5N8 on its territory, certain of which will not have been resolved by 1 January 2021. Therefore, the territory of the United Kingdom cannot be considered as being free from that disease.

(5)

The United Kingdom has submitted information on the epidemiological situation on its territory and the measures it has taken to prevent the further spread of HPAI. That information has been evaluated by the Commission. On the basis of that evaluation, as well as of the guarantees provided by the United Kingdom, it is appropriate to place restrictions on the introduction into the Union of consignments of poultry and poultry products from the areas affected by HPAI, which the veterinary authorities of the United Kingdom have placed under restrictions due to the outbreaks.

(6)

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(7)

As the transition period provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement ends on 31 December 2020, this Regulation should apply from 1 January 2021.

(8)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,