Implementing decision 2013/503 - 2013/503/EU: Commission Implementing Decision of 11 October 2013 recognising parts of the Union as free from varroosis in bees and establishing additional guarantees required in intra-Union trade and imports for the protection of their varroosis-free status (notified under document C(2013) 6599) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 273/38

Directive 92/65/EEC lays down the animal health requirements governing trade in and imports into the Union of animals, semen, ova and embryos not subject to the animal health requirements laid down in the specific acts of the Union referred to in Annex F thereto.

Varroasis in bees is listed in Annex B to Directive 92/65/EEC. It is caused by ectoparasitic mites of the genus Varroa and has been reported worldwide.

Article 15 of Directive 92/65/EEC provides that, where a Member State considers that its territory or part of its territory is free from one of the diseases listed in in Annex B thereto, it is to submit to the Commission appropriate documentation, on the basis of which a Decision is to be adopted.

Varroasis spreads through movement of bee brood and direct contact between infested adult bees. The latter is only possible within the bee’s fly range. Consequently, only territories where the movement of bee hives and brood can be controlled and which are geographically isolated enough to prevent the migration of bees from the outside can be recognised as disease-free. Moreover, the competent authorities must prove through extended surveillance results that the region is indeed free from varroosis and that, to maintain the status, the introduction of live bees and brood is strictly controlled.

Finland has asked the Commission to recognise the Åland Islands as a part of its territory that is free from varroosis. Article 355(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides that the provisions of the Treaties are to apply to the Åland Islands in accordance with the provisions set out in Protocol 2 to the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden.

The Åland Islands are a group of islands situated between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea and they are therefore geographically sufficiently separated from potentially varroosis-infected areas.

Varroosis is a notifiable disease in the Åland Islands and no capped brood and hatched, adult live honey bees can be moved from mainland Finland to the Åland Islands. Finland has for several years observed the island’s bee population. On the basis of that surveillance Finland can now confirm the absence of the disease on the Åland Islands. As a result, that part of the Finnish territory can be considered free from that disease.

The additional guarantees required in trade should therefore be defined, taking into account the measures already put in place by Finland in its national legislation.

To establish the preconditions for the model health certificates for intra-Union movements of live bees between territories of the Union free of Varroa, an additional certification should be established in the health certificate set out in Part 2 of Annex E to Directive...