(1)

Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 lays down rules for the transport of live vertebrate animals carried out within the Union, including the specific checks to be carried out by officials on consignments entering or leaving the customs territory of the Union. Article 27(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 provides that the competent authority is to check that the requirements of that Regulation have been complied with, by carrying out non-discriminatory inspections of animals, means of transport and accompanying documents (‘non-discriminatory inspections’).

(2)

In addition, Article 27(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 provides that Member States are to submit to the Commission by 30 June each year an annual report for the previous year on the non-discriminatory inspections (‘the annual reports’). The annual reports are to be accompanied by an analysis of the major deficiencies detected and an action plan to address them.

(3)

The Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the impact of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport (2) considered that implementing measures should be adopted concerning the controls to be performed by the competent authorities of the Member States in accordance with Article 27(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005.

(4)

That report also concluded that the structure of the reporting system should be further harmonised, as it would provide better and more comparable data.

(5)

Accordingly, this Decision should establish a harmonised model form for the annual reports and, in order to reduce the administrative burden on Member States, it should also provide for the annual reports to be submitted electronically to the Commission.

(6)

Non-discriminatory inspections are carried out by the competent authority at different stages of a journey. They are carried out before departure, during the journey, at arrival at the place of destination and after the completion of the journey. During a non-discriminatory inspection, the competent authority may carry out a number of checks to verify compliance with Union legislation. This may include checking that animals are fit for being transported; checking that the means of transport is fulfilling the requirements of Union legislation or that the transporter has the necessary authorisations. The transporter may or may not be informed beforehand.

(7)

Transporters often anticipate that non-discriminatory inspections will be carried out before departure on long journeys between Member States and with third countries and after arrival at the place of destination when it is a slaughterhouse, and such non-discriminatory inspections often comprise checks of large numbers of animals. Accordingly, in the annual reports those non-discriminatory inspections should be listed separately from random and risk-based non-discriminatory inspections which are usually not anticipated and may cover a smaller number of animals.

(8)

Non-discriminatory inspections carried out before or during journeys include checks by the competent authority of any accompanying documents that are required to be made available to it. Those non-discriminatory inspections should be accounted for separately from non-discriminatory inspections carried out after the completion of a journey, which include checks of journey logs or printouts from navigations systems, with the sole purpose of verifying compliance with the requirements set out in paragraphs 1.4, 1.5, 1.7 and 1.8 of Section 1 of Chapter V of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 concerning journey times and resting periods.

(9)

Accordingly, in order to ensure a proper comparison of the information collected during the non-discriminatory inspections, this Decision should provide for three different types of non-discriminatory inspections to be reported separately for the purposes of the annual reports. Those three types of non-discriminatory inspections should cover: (a) non-discriminatory inspections carried out at place of departure before the animals are transported on long journeys between Member States and with third countries, and after the animals are unloaded from the means of transport at the place of destination when it is a slaughterhouse; (b) non-discriminatory inspections carried out during the transport; and (c) non-discriminatory inspections carried out after the completion of the transport to verify compliance with journey times and resting periods.

(10)

During a non-discriminatory inspection, the competent authority may check one or more animals, means of transport and accompanying documents. The outcome of the non-discriminatory inspection may result in cases of non-compliance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 being detected by the competent authority and action taken by it to address non-compliance. A proper comparison of the outcome of such non-discriminatory inspections in the Member States requires that they are accounted for and reported in a harmonised manner.

(11)

This Decision should apply from 1 January 2015 in order to give the Member States sufficient time to adapt their national data collection systems to the information required to be included in the annual reports in accordance with this Decision.

(12)

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