Annexes to COM(2020)756 - Overall operation of official controls (2017-2018) to ensure application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products

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dossier COM(2020)756 - Overall operation of official controls (2017-2018) to ensure application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and ...
document COM(2020)756 EN
date November 24, 2020
Agreement on the European Economic Area to discuss and promote the implementation of certain aspects of EU law.

Since 2008, two networks have met regularly to exchange experiences on the preparation, implementation and reporting of MANCPs and on the implementation of national audit systems (NAS) on official controls. During 2017 and 2018, the MANCP Network met nine times. The meetings were mostly dedicated to the development, and finalisation, of the standard model forms for annual reports 39 . One sub-group meeting in 2018 was dedicated to the revision of the guidelines on the preparation of the MANCP 40 . The MANCP network also developed the electronic version of the standard model form for the annual reports, the “Annual Reporting on Official Controls – AROC” tool, to help Member States get ready for the OCR implementation.

The NAS Network met four times during 2017 and 2018. The meetings facilitated the exchange of experiences, common problems, and identified good/best practices between members and the network initiated a review of the guidelines on conduct of audits 41 .

The network of Member States’ national contact points for the protection of animals during transport (NCPs) meets regularly since 2010 to share knowledge of common issues and find solution to implement and enforce animal welfare requirements during transport. Since 2014, this network has produced consensus Network Documents, which provide guidance on the practical implementation of the animal welfare requirements, and identify good practices for controls. In 2017 and 2018, the NCP network met four times to discuss the changes to annual reports for animal welfare transport controls, the transport of unweaned calves and the transport of animals to non-EU countries and in extreme temperatures. During 2017, the NCP finalised the Network Document on the export of live animal exports by road.

The Working Group, on the sustainable use of pesticides, met four times in 2017-2018. In 2017, the Commission published its first report on the implementation of the legislation on the sustainable use of pesticides (SUD) 42 . The group intensively discussed this report and the SUD implementation in individual Member States, together with the review of their initial National Action Plans 43 . In 2018, the discussions focused on the Harmonised Risk Indicators as prepared by the Commission, environmental aspects of the SUD, and the challenges encountered by Member States regarding the implementation of Integrated Pest Management and its assessment at farm level.

Working Groups on formulation of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) and on enforcement of legislation in this area aim to address the main weaknesses identified in the audit series carried out from 2012 to 2016 regarding official controls on the placing on the market of PPP. During 2017 and 2018, one WG meeting on PPP formulation and analysis was organised, which focused on developing Reference Documents to provide guidance to Member States on analytical strategy and on the interpretation of analytical results. The WG on enforcement of PPP legislation met twice in 2017 and once in 2018. One of these meetings was organised as a workshop, addressing official controls in large-scale warehouses, import controls at ports, and inspections of manufacturers of plant protection products. This provided a useful basis for Member States to improve inspection activities in this area.

6.2.2.Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF)

BTSF is a Commission initiative aimed at organising training for stakeholders in the areas of EU food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules, organic farming and quality schemes. The outcome of the Commission’s controls (e.g. audits) helps identify training needs. The 2017 and 2018 BTSF programme 44 contained, workshops on a range of topics such as the prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance, on the preparedness of the veterinary services for natural disasters and training on internal audits.

6.3.Enforcement 

When a Member State breaches EU law, the Commission determines appropriate actions on a case-by-case basis in line with its "EU law: Better results through better application” approach 45 . Such actions may range from contacts with the Member States' authorities at appropriate levels aimed at ensuring the correct application of EU law up to the launching of EU Pilot exchanges and/or infringement proceedings in cases where there is a clear and sound legal basis, and where all other avenues to encourage compliance have been exhausted. In the food safety area, enforcement tools other than infringements also include the imposition of protective or safeguard measures. These can range from taking precautionary measures on the trade in and movements of animals, plants or food and feed products to adopting safeguard measures in accordance with the relevant legislation.

A first line of action is a high-level letter to the relevant Member State, where needed, followed by the pre-litigation and litigation phases of the infringement procedure 46 . 

During 2017-2018 one infringement cases was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union in the areas covered by the OCR. The Commission decided in May 2018 to refer Italy to the Court of Justice of the EU over its failure to adequately prevent further spread of the quarantine harmful organism Xylella fastidiosa in Apulia 47 .

7.Conclusions

The EU has a solid legislative framework to control safety hazards in the supply chain. Member State national authorities demonstrated in their annual reports on official controls that they continue to fulfil their important role to monitor and to verify, through the organisation of official controls, that relevant Union requirements are effectively complied with and enforced.

The accompanying Staff Working Document provides details of Commission controls carried out in the Member States to verify that Union requirements on food and feed law, animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products are properly implemented and enforced by the Member States. The results of these controls show that overall Member States have the requisite control systems in place, which ensure generally acceptable levels of compliance. The Commission controls however, continue to identify deficiencies in official controls and highlight that there is still room for improvement.

Relaxed attitudes to food safety always backfire and when they do, it may not only threaten public health but also affect the trust of our citizens as well as our trading partners in the EU food system as a whole. There cannot be any complacency towards food safety and all planned control activities set out in Member States’ MANCPs need to be implemented. Nevertheless, the Annual Reports for 2017 and 2018 again highlight that many Member States are facing challenges to secure adequate financial resources for performing the necessary official controls.

The systematic follow-up of audit recommendations shows that, in general, Member States take the appropriate corrective measures to address identified shortcomings. In addition, the Annual Reports highlight ongoing efforts by the Member States to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their controls, in particular through better IT systems, data analysis, quality manuals and training.

The adoption of the OCR has introduced significant changes, which will contribute to the improvement of official controls.

In order to ensure coherence of MANCPs, Member States need to designate a single body tasked with coordinating their preparation and collecting information on their implementation, review and update. The MANCPs shall set out strategic objectives and how the prioritisation of official controls and allocation of resources reflect these priorities.

On transparency, the OCR requires that the MANCPs shall be made available to the public. In addition, there is a possibility for Member States to deliver on the requirements of transparency by publishing their annual report.

The introduction of a standard model form for the annual reports to be submitted by Member States will facilitate the collection of comparable information and data on Member States official controls across the EU agri-food chain and will contribute to a smoother drafting and publication of the Commission’s Annual Report.

Working in partnership, the Commission remains dedicated to support the Member States to continuously improve their official control systems through the networks and the BTSF initiative.


(1) Fraud is an intentional action taken by businesses or individuals for the purpose of deceiving purchasers and gaining an undue advantage therefrom. Such actions may also constitute a risk to human, animal or plant health, or to animal welfare or the environment. The webpages on the EU Food Fraud Network provide more background information.
(2) “official control” means any activity performed by EU Member State competent authority to verify compliance with food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products and that animals and goods meet the requirements.
(3) Article 116 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and animal welfare, plant health and plant protection products - OJ L 95, 7.4.2017, p.1.
(4) Article 113(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(5) Article 114 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(6) Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety - OJ L 31, 1.2.2002, p.1.
(7) Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 - OJ L 189, 20.7.2007, p.1.
(8) Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs - OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1.
(9) Regulation (EU) 2017/625 repealed 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.
(10) Articles 109, 110 and 111 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(11) Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(12) Article 116 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(13) Article 119 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(14) Article 44 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004.
(15) Commission Decision 2008/654/EC of 24 July 2008 on guidelines to assist Member States in preparing the annual report on the single integrated multiannual national control plan provided for in Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 - OJ L 214, 9.8.2008, p. 56.
(16) See the Special report no 04/2019: The control system for organic products has improved, but some challenges remain
(17) 2017 : Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Norway ; 2018: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway 
(18) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/723 of 2 May 2019 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and the Council as regards the standard model form to be used in the annual reports submitted by Member States – OJ L 124, 13.5.2019, p. 1; adopted under Article 113(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(19) Articles 42(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 110(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(20) Articles 3(1) and 43(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(21) Article 36 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(22) Article 139(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(23) Articles 26 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 78 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(24) Articles 4(6) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 6 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(25) Articles 5 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 28 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(26) Articles 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 33(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(27) Articles 54 and 55 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 137, 138 and 139 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(28) The control activities in the areas of human health are not performed under Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 or 2017/625, and therefore they are not included in this report.
(29) Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits_analysis/audit_programmes_en
(30) Art. 116(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(31) Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit_reports/index.cfm
(32) Audits verify the implementation of official controls while country visits and fact-finding missions are used to gather information on a country or on a topic across a number of Member States.
(33) Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/overview_reports/index.cfm
(34) Commission staff working document accompanying the document: Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council on the overall operation of official controls performed in Member States (2017-2018) to ensure the verification of compliance with food and feed law, animal health and welfare rules.
(35) Article 15(1) of Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides - OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 71–86.
(36) Articles 45(3) and 45(5) of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 and 117(a) and 119(a) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.
(37) The follow-up indicator is based on a three year rolling cycle, taking account of the time needed by Member States to devise an action plan in response to audit recommendations and the time needed for the implementation of the actions.
(38) Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/country_profiles/index.cfm
(39) Regulation (EU) 2019/723 - OJ L 124, 13.5.2019, p. 1–31.
(40) Commission Decision 2007/363/EC - OJ L 138, 30.5.2007, p. 24–49.
(41) Commission Decision 2006/677/EC - OJ L 278, 10.10.2006, p. 15–23.
(42) Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Member State National Action Plans and on progress in the implementation of Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides .
(43) The Member States were required to adopt National Action Plans to implement the SUD for the first time by November 2012. These plans should contain quantitative objectives, targets, measurements and timetables to reduce the risks and impacts of pesticide use. These plans should be reviewed at least every five years.
(44) See https://ec.europa.eu/chafea/food/bookshelf/reports/index_en.htm for annual reports on BTSF.
(45) See https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/communication-commission-eu-law-better-results-through-better-application_en .
(46) Article 258 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU.
(47) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_3805