Source: European Parliament
1. Since Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council on official controls on the agri-food chain[1] does not define what constitutes a ‘serious disruption’ of a Member State’s control system, the Commission uses a wide range of evidence on the implementation of Union legislation by Member States to evaluate their official control systems. Such evidence includes the reports of the Commission’s audits, data from information technology (IT) systems managed by the Commission and from Member States’ annual reports, and information related to financial support for actions carried out by Member States. So far, a serious disruption has only been found in the specific situation of the COVID-19 pandemic[2].
2. Consignments entering the Union from non-EU countries are subject to a robust system of official controls based on harmonised EU legislation, notably Regulation (EU) 2017/625, which aims to ensure that only safe commodities may enter the EU. In cases of identified ‘trade risks’, a number of effective measures are available which include intensified official controls at entry into the Union for products of animal origin[3], the imposition of treatments to ensure the absence of health risks, sampling and testing and controls performed by the country of origin, emergency measures including the suspension of entry of commodities[4] and the de-listing of non-EU countries’ establishments, regions or of whole non-EU countries, so that import of concerned agri-food products is to be restricted.