Council Regulation (EC) N o 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC

• Published date: 09 January 2004
• Subject Matter: viandes ovine et caprine,informations et vérifications,législation vétérinaire,carne de ovino y caprino,información y verificación,legislación veterinaria,carni ovine e caprine,informazione e verifiche,legislazione veterinaria
• Official Gazette Publication: Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 5, 09 janvier 2004,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 5, 09 de enero de 2004,Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 5, 09 gennaio 2004

2004R0021 — EN — 01.07.2013 — 007.003

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►B COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC (OJ L 005 9.1.2004, p. 8)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
M1	COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1791/2006 of 20 November 2006	L 363	1	20.12.2006
►M2	COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1560/2007 of 17 December 2007	L 340	25	22.12.2007
►M3	COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 933/2008 of 23 September 2008	L 256	5	24.9.2008
►M4	COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 759/2009 of 19 August 2009	L 215	3	20.8.2009
►M5	COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 506/2010 of 14 June 2010	L 149	3	15.6.2010
►M6	COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 45/2012 of 19 January 2012	L 17	1	20.1.2012
►M7	COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No 517/2013 of 13 May 2013	L 158	1	10.6.2013

Corrected by:

►C1 Corrigendum, OJ L 116, 30.4.2016, p. 39 (21/2004)

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▼B

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 21/2004

of 17 December 2003

establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC

Article 1

1. Each Member State shall establish a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation.

2. This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to Community rules which may be established for disease eradication or control purposes, and without prejudice to Directive 91/496/EEC and Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003.

Article 2

For the purpose of this Regulation:

(a) ‘animal’ shall mean any animal of the ovine or caprine species;

(b) ‘holding’ shall mean any establishment, any structure, or in the case of free-range farming, any environment, in which animals are held, reared or handled on a permanent or temporary basis, except veterinary practices or clinics;

(c) ‘keeper’ shall mean any natural or legal person with responsibility for animals, even temporarily, except veterinary practices or clinics;

(d) ‘competent authority’ shall mean the central authority or authorities of a Member State responsible for, or entrusted with, carrying out veterinary checks and implementing this Regulation, or, in the case of monitoring for premiums, the authority entrusted with implementing Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003;

(e) ‘intra-Community trade’ shall mean trade as defined in Article 2(6) of Directive 91/68/EEC ( 13 ).

Article 3

1. The system for the identification and registration of animals shall comprise the following elements:

(a) means of identification to identify each animal;

(b) up-to-date registers kept on each holding;

(c) movement documents;

(d) a central register or a computer database.

2. The Commission and the competent authority of the Member State concerned shall have access to all information covered by this Regulation. The Member States and the Commission shall take the measures necessary to ensure access to that information for all parties having an interest, including consumers' organisations recognised by the Member State, provided that the data protection and confidentiality requirements prescribed by national law are complied with.

Article 4

1. All animals on a holding born after 9 July 2005 ►M7 or for Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia the respective date of accession ◄ shall be identified in accordance with paragraph 2 within a period to be determined by the Member State as from the birth of the animal and in any case before the animal leaves the holding on which it was born. That period shall not be longer than six months.

By way of derogation Member States may extend the period, which may not, however, exceed nine months, for animals kept in extensive or free-range farming conditions. Member States concerned shall inform the Commission of the derogation granted. If necessary, implementing rules may be laid down in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(2).

2.

(a) Animals shall be identified by a first means of identification which complies with the requirements of Section A.1 to A.3 of the Annex, and,

(b) by a second means of identification approved by the competent authority and conforming to the technical characteristics listed in Section A.4 of the Annex.

(c) However, until the date referred to in Article 9(3), the second means of identification may be replaced by the system set out in Section A.5 of the Annex, except in the case of animals involved in intra-Community trade.

(d) Member States which introduce the system referred to in (c) shall apply to the Commission to have it approved under the procedure provided for in Article 13(2). For this purpose the Commission shall examine documentation submitted by Member States and shall conduct the audits necessary to evaluate the system. When those audits have been completed the Commission shall, within 90 days of receipt of the request for approval, submit to the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health a report together with a draft of appropriate measures.

3. However for animals intended for slaughter before the age of 12 months and intended neither for intra-Community trade nor for export to third countries, the identification method described in Section A.7 of the Annex may be authorised by the competent authority as an alternative to the means of identification mentioned in paragraph 2.

4. Any animal imported from a third country, which has undergone after 9 July 2005 ►M7 or for Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia the respective date of accession ◄ the checks laid down by Directive 91/496/EEC and which remains within the territory of the Community shall be identified, in accordance with paragraph 2, at the holding of destination where livestock farming is carried out within a period, to be determined by the Member State, of no more than 14 days from undergoing those checks and, in any event, before leaving the holding.

The original identification established by the third country shall be recorded in the holding register provided for in Article 5 together with the identification code allocated to it by the Member State of destination.

However, the identification provided for in paragraph 1 is not necessary for an animal intended for slaughter if the animal is transported directly from the veterinary border inspection post to a slaughterhouse situated in the Member State where the checks referred to in the first subparagraph are carried out and the animal is slaughtered within five working days of undergoing those checks.

5. Any animal originating in another Member State shall retain its original identification.

6. No means of identification may be removed or replaced without the permission of the competent authority. Where a means of identification has become illegible or has been lost, a replacement bearing the same code shall be applied as soon as possible in accordance with this Article. In addition to the code and distinct from it, the replacement may bear a mark with the version number of the replacement.

However, the competent authority may, under its control, allow the replacement means of identification to bear a different code, provided that the objective of traceability is not compromised, in particular in the case of animals identified in accordance with paragraph 3.

7. The means of identification shall be allocated to the holding, distributed and applied to the animals in a manner determined by the competent authority.

8. Member States shall communicate to each other and to the Commission the model of the means and the method of identification used in their territory.

9. Until the date referred to in Article 9(3), Member States which have introduced electronic identification on a voluntary basis in accordance with the provisions of Section A.4 and A.6 of the Annex shall ensure that the individual electronic identification number and the characteristics of the means used are mentioned in the relevant certificate pursuant to Directive 91/68/EEC accompanying animals involved in intra-Community trade.

Article 5

1. Each keeper of animals, with the exception of the transporter, shall keep an up-to-date register containing at least the information listed in Section B of the Annex.

2. Member States may require keepers to enter further information in the register referred to in paragraph 1, in addition to that listed in Section B of the Annex.

3. The register shall be in a format approved by the competent authority, kept in manual or computerised form, and be available at all times on the holding and to the competent authority, upon request, for a minimum period to be determined by the competent authority but which may not be less than three years.

4. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the register of information required by Section B of the Annex shall be optional in any Member State where a centralised computer database which already contains this information is operational.

5. Each keeper shall supply the competent authority, upon request, with all information concerning the origin, identification and, where appropriate, the destination of animals which the keeper has owned, kept, transported, marketed or slaughtered in the last three years.

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