(1)

Certain Member States have submitted programmes to the Commission for the eradication and the monitoring of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) for which they wish to receive a financial contribution from the Community.

(2)

Under Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (2), programmes for the eradication and the monitoring of animal diseases are to be financed under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund. For financial control purposes, Articles 8 and 9 of that Regulation are to apply.

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 laying down rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (3), lays down rules for monitoring and eradication of TSEs in bovine, ovine and caprine animals.

(4)

In drawing up the lists of programmes for the eradication and the monitoring of TSEs qualifying for a financial contribution from the Community for 2005 and the proposed rate and maximum amount of the contribution for each programme, both the interest of each programme for the Community and the volume of available appropriations must be taken into account.

(5)

The Member States have supplied the Commission with information enabling it to assess the interest for the Community of providing a financial contribution to the programmes for 2005.

(6)

The Commission has considered each of the programmes from both the veterinary and the financial point of view and is satisfied that those programmes should be included in the lists of programmes qualifying for a financial contribution from the Community in 2005. The contribution for the monitoring of TSEs concerns the implementation of rapid tests, and for the eradication of TSEs, the destruction of animals found positive and the genotyping of animals.

(7)

In view of the importance of those measures for the protection of public and animal health, as well as the relatively recent introduction of those monitoring programmes compared with the traditional disease eradication programmes and the obligatory application of these programmes in all Member States, a high level of financial assistance from the Community should be ensured.

(8)

It is therefore appropriate to adopt the list of programmes qualifying for a financial contribution from the Community in 2005 and to set the proposed rate and the maximum amount of those contributions.

(9)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health,