Article 45

Commission experts shall carry out general and specific audits in Member States. The Commission may appoint experts from Member States to assist its own experts. General and specific audits shall be organised in cooperation with Member States' competent authorities. Audits shall be carried out on a regular basis. Their main purpose shall be to verify that, overall, official controls take place in Member States in accordance with the multi-annual national control plans referred to in Article 41 and in compliance with Community law. For this purpose, and in order to facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of the audits, the Commission may, in advance of carrying out such audits, request that the Member States provide, as soon as possible, up-to-date copies of national control plans. Specific audits and inspections in one or more specific areas may supplement general audits. These specific audits and inspections shall in particular serve to: verify the implementation of the multi-annual national control plan, feed and food law and animal health and animal welfare legislation and may include, as appropriate, on-the-spot inspections of official services and of facilities associated with the sector being audited; verify the functioning and organisation of competent authorities; investigate important or recurring problems in Member States; investigate emergency situations, emerging problems or new developments in Member States. The Commission shall report on the findings of each control carried out. Its report shall, if appropriate, contain recommendations for Member States on the improvement of compliance with feed and food law and animal health and animal welfare rules. The Commission shall make its reports publicly available. In the case of reports on controls carried out in a Member State, the Commission shall provide the relevant competent authority with a draft report for comments, take those comments into consideration in preparing the final report and publish the competent authority's comments together with the final report. The Commission shall establish an annual control programme, communicate it to Member States in advance, and report on its results. The Commission may amend the programme to take account of developments in the fields of feed and food safety, animal health, animal welfare and plant health. Member States shall: take appropriate follow-up action in the light of the recommendations resulting from Community controls; give all necessary assistance and provide all documentation and other technical support that Commission experts request to enable them to carry out controls efficiently and effectively; ensure that Commission experts have access to all premises or parts of premises and to information, including computing systems, relevant to the execution of their duties. Detailed rules concerning Community controls in Member States may be drawn up or amended in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 62(3).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-01 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.