Activites

• 2003/06/13 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Regulation 2003/998
  • OJ L 146 13.06.2003, p. 0001-0009
• 2003/05/26 Final act signed
• 2003/05/26 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2003/04/25 Decision by Council, 3rd reading
• 2003/04/10 Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading
  • T5-0181/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a conciliation agreement with 270 votes in favour, 8 against, with 4 abstentions approving a regulation on the non-commercial movement of pets.�

• 2003/04/09 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2003/03/19 Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs
  • 3610/2003
• 2003/02/19 Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading
  • A5-0102/2003
• 2003/02/19 Final decision by Conciliation Committee
• 2003/02/18 Formal meeting of Conciliation Committee
• #2480
• 2003/01/21 Council Meeting
• 2002/10/22 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0493/2002 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Jill EVANS (Greens/EFA, UK) on the non-commercial movement of pets. (Please refer to the document dated 3/10/02.)�

• 2002/10/03 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0327/2002
• 2002/07/03 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #2441
• 2002/06/27 Council Meeting
  • 07839/2/2002 summary

    The Council has endorsed the general approach of the Commission's amended proposal. In its general structure, the common position differs from the amended proposal by integrating into the body of the text a number of animal health conditions, depending on the type of movement, which were originally in the Annex. The aim of this amendment is to distinguish the basic elements of the act, of a legislative nature, clearly from the technical elements coming under the implementing measures (comitology). The common position also clarifies certain points of the Commission's amended proposal: -it amends the directive applicable to trade in these animals (92/65/EEC) so as to ensure immediate consistency between the two texts; -it lays down, in certain cases, derogations from the general principle of anti-rabies vaccinations for young animals; -it proposes anti-rabies vaccinations for ferrets as a general principle underlying all movements of those animals; - there is a transitional period of five years at the end of which the special provisions relating to movements to the three sensitive Member States - the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Sweden - are to be reconsidered in the light of the evolution of the rabies situation in the EU; -it clarifies the additional guarantees granted to certain Member States for a transitional period of five years. These amendments are the result of a carefully-balanced compromise, and do not jeopardise the thrust of the proposal and its long-term objectives. Finally, the European Parliament considered it useful to make the identification of dogs and cats by tattooing transitional. The Council agrees to that approach, but postponed a decision on the choice of identification methods. Accordingly, the Council did not consider it necessary to specify immediately that only transponders complying with the ISO standard may be used. The decision is postponed to a subsequent review. �

• #2422
• 2002/04/22 Council Meeting
• #X016
• 2002/01/21 Council Meeting
  • X016
• 2001/06/21 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(2001)0349 summary

    Most of the modifications to the initial proposal made by the Commission are amendments for clarification or introducing obligations on the Commission or on the Member States with no serious impact on the general objective of the proposal. The most significant amendment concerns the transitional period of 8 years after which the tatoo will not be recognised for identification of cats and dogs. Electronic identification will be the only accepted method. The Commission anticipates that this amendment is likely to cause difficulties in a few Member States where tattooing is still practised. Nevertheless, 8 years should allow for a smooth switch to the new technology of the microchip. �

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Health and Consumers'}],
• 2001/05/03 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0222/2001 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the report by Mrs Jillian EVANS (Greens/EFA, UK) on animal-health requirements applicable to non-commercial movement of pet animals. (Please refer to the previous document).�

• 2001/05/02 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2001/04/10 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0125/2001
• 2000/10/06 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2000/09/18 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2000)0529 summary

    PURPOSE : to harmonise the animal-health requirements applicable to non-commercial movements of pet animals. CONTENT : this proposal highlights that measures need to be adopted at Community level to ensure that rules applicable to non-commercial movement of pet animals in the Member States are consistent. To date, attempts to harmonise the animal-health requirements applicable to non-commercial movement of pet animals have come to grief over the problem of rabies, which is dealt with in widely divergent ways by the Member States. The number of cases of rabies among household pets (cats and dogs) dropped from 499 in 1991 to 5 in 1998. This highly favourable development has prompted the United Kingdom authorites to do away with the six-month quarantine they applied hitherto to cats and dogs entering the UK. An alternative to the quarantine system has been adopted by the United Kingdom on the basis of the conclusions of a group of independent experts and following a public survey that came out overwhelmingly in favour. It is only intended to cover animals from the Member States and ultimately those from certain third countries where rabies does not exist or is under control. It is now accepted that this alternative system provides an equivalent level of safety to quarantine. Briefly, it involves: - electronically identifying the animals; - vaccinating them with an inactivated vaccine; - checking their immune response to vaccination by titration of antibodies, to be carried out more than six months prior to the movement. This draft Regulation is largely based on the alternative system adopted by the United Kingdom as regards the movement to Member States "historically free of rabies". Furthermore, vaccination is only required for movement between the Member States other than those referred to in the preceding paragraph. In line with a regional approach, the same rules applies to third countries and territories, such as Switzerland, that can be treated in the same way as the Community. At a later stage, the regulations applicable to cats and dogs from third countries should be tightened up and stricter controls applied to such movement. Since the disease is under control in all Member States, the introduction of animals from regions where rabies is endemic now constitutes the major risk of propagation. As regards such movement, this regulation lays down stricter provisions than those currently applied in certain continental Member States where titration of antibodies is not required (the test is among the recommendations of the International Animal Health Code of the International Office of Epizootics from infected countries). �

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Health and Consumers'}],

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2000)0529
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0125/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0222/2001
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(2001)0349
• Debate in Council: X016
• Council position published: 07839/2/2002
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0327/2002
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0493/2002
• Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading: A5-0102/2003
• Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs: 3610/2003
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading: T5-0181/2003
• : Regulation 2003/998
• : OJ L 146 13.06.2003, p. 0001-0009

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)