CHAPTER I:

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). Commission experts may carry out official controls in third countries in order to verify, on the basis of the information referred to in Article 47(1), the compliance or equivalence of third country legislation and systems with Community feed and food law and Community animal health legislation. The Commission may appoint experts from Member States to assist its own experts. Such official controls shall have particular regard to: the legislation of the third country; the organisation of the third country's competent authorities, their powers and independence, the supervision to which they are subject and the authority they have to enforce the applicable legislation effectively; the training of staff in the performance of official controls; the resources including diagnostic facilities available to competent authorities; the existence and operation of documented control procedures and control systems based on priorities; where applicable, the situation regarding animal health, zoonoses and plant health, and procedures for notifying the Commission and relevant international bodies of outbreaks of animal and plant diseases; the extent and operation of official controls on imports of animals, plants and their products; the assurances which the third country can give regarding compliance with, or equivalence to, Community requirements. In order to facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of the controls in a third country, the Commission may, in advance of carrying out such controls, request that the third country concerned provide the information referred to in Article 47(1) and, where appropriate, the written records on the implementation of such controls. The frequency of Community controls in third countries shall be determined on the basis of: a risk assessment of the products exported to the Community; the provisions of Community legislation; the volume and nature of imports from the country concerned; the results of controls that the Commission services or other inspection bodies have already carried out; the results of import controls and of any other controls that competent authorities of Member States have carried out; information received from the European Food Safety Authority or similar bodies; information received from internationally recognised bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), or from other sources; evidence of emerging disease situations or other circumstances that might result in live animals, live plants or feed or food imported from a third country presenting health risks; the need to investigate or respond to emergency situations in individual third countries. The criteria for determining risk for the purpose of the risk assessment referred to in point (a) shall be decided in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 62(3). The procedure and detailed rules for controls in third countries may be determined or amended in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 62(3). They shall include, in particular, procedures for and detailed rules on: controls in third countries in the context of a bilateral agreement; controls in other third countries. According to the same procedure, charges for the abovementioned controls may be established on a reciprocal basis. If, during a Community control, a serious risk to human or animal health is identified, the Commission shall immediately take any necessary emergency measures in accordance with Article 53 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 or safeguard provisions in other relevant Community legislation. The Commission shall report on the findings of each Community control carried out. Its report shall, if appropriate, contain recommendations. The Commission shall make its reports publicly available. The Commission shall communicate its programme of controls in third countries to Member States in advance and report on the results. It may amend the programme to take account of developments in the fields of feed and food safety, animal health and plant health.

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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.