Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-393/01
In 1998, as a result of the cases of BSE in Portugal, the
Commission prohibited that country from exporting live bovine animals, beef and veal, and
products obtained from those animals to other Member States or to third countries.
On 18 April 2001, the Commission laid down in a decision the conditions
for lifting the ban and implemented a date-based export scheme (the DBES) with
a view to permitting, subject to compliance with certain requirements, the dispatch of
products from animals born after a given date. 1 Pursuant to that decision,
the Commission had to carry out inspections in Portugal before lifting the ban.
Subsequently, on 25 July 2001, the Commission adopted another decision by which it
set
1 August 2001 as the date for the recommencement of exports of bovine
products from Portugal.
France brought an action before the Court of Justice of the European Communities
challenging that second decision since it took the view that the Commission was
not in a position to assert that the conditions laid down for lifting
the ban had been met.
The Court started from the principle laid down in the EC Treaty that
a high level of human health protection must be ensured in the definition
and implementation of all Community policies and activities, and from the seriousness of
the risks associated with BSE. In the light of those considerations, it determined
which inspections the Commission should have carried out, in accordance with its decision
of 18 April 2001, with a view to setting the date for lifting
the ban.
The checks that the Commission should have carried out include:
specific inspections relating to the DBES; and
more general inspections whose purpose is to verify the implementation of official controls,
to examine the development of the incidence of the disease, to verify the
enforcement of national measures and to conduct a risk assessment. Those checks also
make it possible to monitor compliance with the prohibition on meat meal, bone
meal and meat-and-bone meal in animal feed and the proper operation of the
systems for identification and traceability of bovine animals.
The Court pointed out that even though the DBES is based on the
individual status of eligible animals, compliance with the prohibition on meat meal, bone
meal and meat-and-bone meal and the proper operation of the animal identification and
traceability systems are essential to ensuring the safety required of that scheme.
Therefore, before setting the date for lifting the ban, the Commission should not
only have carried out the inspections relating to the DBES, but it should
also have carried out the more general inspections, at least in respect of
the elements essential to the safety of the DBES. The purpose of those
inspections is not solely to confirm the adoption of national provisions but also
to verify their application.
As regards the inspection relating to the DBES, the Court stated that the
Commission evidently did not carry out the verifications required by the decision.
As to the more general inspections, the inspections carried out by the Commission
were not sufficient to establish that Portugal had correctly applied the provisions designed
to ensure compliance with the elements essential to the safety of the DBES.
In those circumstances, the Court has annulled the Commission decision of 25 July
2001 ending the ban on bovine products from Portugal.
|
Available in English, French and Portuguese. For the full text of the judgments, please consult our Internet page www.curia.eu.int at about 3 pm today For further information please contact Christopher Fretwell: Tel: (00 352) 4303 3355; Fax: (00 352) 4303 2731 |