(1)

Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 provides that each Member State is to establish a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals in accordance with the provisions of that Regulation.

(2)

That system is to comprise four elements, namely: means of identification to identify each animal (means of identification), up-to-date registers kept on each holding, movement documents and a central register or a computer database. The Annex to that Regulation sets out the requirements for those elements.

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 21/2004, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1560/2007 (2), provides that electronic identification is to be obligatory as from 31 December 2009.

(4)

On 17 November 2007, the Commission submitted a report to the Council on the implementation of electronic identification in sheep and goats (3). That report concludes that Member States should also be allowed to approve new types of identifiers to identify sheep and goats under certain conditions.

(5)

Technological developments have taken place in the field of electronic identification. It is therefore appropriate to amend the requirements concerning the means of identification, set out in Regulation (EC) No 21/2004, in order to allow a broader spectrum of technical combinations. The newly developed means of identification, such as injectable identifiers and electronic marks on the pastern, should accordingly be permitted as means of identification pursuant to that Regulation. However, their use should be limited to national movements, taking into account the need to gain further practical experience of using those new means of identification. As electronic identification will become the first means of identification Member States should be allowed more flexibility in using conventional means of identification as a second identifier. Part A of the Annex to that Regulation should therefore be amended accordingly.

(6)

Part B of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 sets out the information which should be contained in the up-to-date registers kept on each holding. Part of that information is available only at the holding of birth. In the interest of reducing the administrative burdens, it is therefore appropriate to amend that part of the Annex.

(7)

Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 provides that, as from 31 December 2009, electronic identification is to be obligatory for all animals born after that date. However, during the first year after 31 December 2009, the majority of animals will only be identified with conventional non-electronic identifiers, since those animals are born before that date. During that year animals with electronic and non-electronic identifiers will be moved and handled together.

(8)

The individual animal codes from non-electronic identifiers can only be recorded manually. Manual recording of non-electronic identifiers requires considerable effort on the part of keepers and constitutes a potential source of errors. In addition, it would be burdensome for operators to separate the few animals with electronic identifiers and to record their individual codes. Also, it would be burdensome to request that electronic reading systems are installed for individual recording, as the majority of animals moved would still be identified with conventional non-electronic eartags. Therefore, the date from which the movement document is to contain individual animal codes should be postponed until such time as a substantial part of the sheep and goats population has already been identified by electronic means. The Commission’s report on the implementation of electronic identification in sheep and goats also reached that conclusion.

(9)

It is therefore appropriate to postpone until 1 January 2011 the date from which the movement document must contain the individual identification code for each animal. The date referred to in point 2 of Part C of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 21/2004, concerning the movement document, should therefore be amended accordingly.

(10)

The particular situation of animals born before 1 January 2010 should be taken into account as regards the requirement to record individual animal codes in the movement document. The risks associated with movements of such animals to a slaughterhouse are limited and do not justify the supplementary administrative burden posed by that requirement. Animals moved directly to a slaughterhouse should therefore be exempted from that requirement regardless of the date of movement of the animals.

(11)

In addition, although animals born before 1 January 2010 would still form a substantial part of the sheep and goats population in 2011, the risks associated with their movements would be constantly decreasing, proportionally to the decrease in number of such animals until 31 December 2011. Movements of such animals should therefore be exempted from the requirement to record individual animal codes in the movement document until 31 December 2011. After that date, the vast majority of the sheep and goats population would be electronically identified and manual recording would be necessary only in a small number of cases, as it would only concern old animals which are moved to other holdings and not to slaughterhouses. The burden imposed on keepers by such recording after 31 December 2011, as well as the potential sources of error, would then be within acceptable levels.

(12)

It is therefore appropriate to provide for certain transitional provisions during the start-up period of the system as regards the recording of individual animal codes in the movement document of animals born before 1 January 2010.

(13)

Part C of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 sets out the information which should be contained in the movement document. The identification code of the holding of destination is not always available at the holding of departure. The name and address of the holding of destination or next keeper should be acceptable as an alternative.

(14)

Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(15)

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