Decision 2011/408 - 2011/408/EU: Council Decision of 28 June 2011 laying down simplified rules and procedures on sanitary controls of fishery products, live bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates, marine gastropods, by-products thereof and products derived from these by-products coming from Greenland - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 182/24

Greenland is included in the list of overseas countries and territories set out in Annex II to the Treaties. In accordance with Article 198 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter ‘the Treaty’), the purpose of the association of the overseas countries and territories with the Union is to promote the economic and social development of the overseas countries and territories and to establish close economic relations between them and the Union as a whole.

Denmark and Greenland have requested that veterinary checks between the Union and Greenland on fishery products, bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates, marine gastropods, by-products and products derived from these by-products that are regarded as originating in Greenland according to Annex III to Council Decision 2001/822/EC of 27 November 2001 on the association of the overseas countries and territories with the European Community (‘Overseas Association Decision’) (1), and of the same products which are introduced into Greenland from third countries, be permitted in accordance with the rules on sanitary and veterinary controls applicable to trade within the Union.

Trade in those products between Greenland and the Union should, therefore, be conducted in compliance with Union rules on animal health and food safety. Accordingly, Denmark and Greenland should undertake to ensure that consignments of products dispatched to the Union from Greenland are in conformity with the applicable Union rules concerning animal health and food safety. In particular, eligible feed and food business operators should be registered and listed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (2).

Veterinary checks at border inspection posts in Greenland should be carried out in accordance with Council Directive 97/78/EC of 18 December 1997 laying down the principles governing the organisation of veterinary checks on products entering the Community from third countries (3). Veterinary checks at border inspection posts should be carried out in close cooperation with customs officials. To simplify those tasks it is appropriate to provide the competent authorities with references to the Combined Nomenclature (CN) specified in Annex I to Commission Decision 2007/275/EC of 17 April 2007 concerning lists of animals and products to be subject to controls at border inspection posts under Council Directives 91/496/EEC and 97/78/EC (4).

The competent authority in Greenland should provide official assurances to the Commission on the enforcement of the Union rules and animal health requirements for the products concerned. Those assurances should cover, in particular, compliance with the applicable provisions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 laying down health rules as...