(fra kommisjonsbeslutningen)

(1) Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 provides that Member States, or third countries or regions thereof (countries or regions) are to be classified according to their bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) status into one of three categories: negligible BSE risk, controlled BSE risk and undetermined BSE risk. 

(2) Article 5(2), third subparagraph, of Regulation (EC) No 999/2001 provides that if the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has placed an applicant country in one of the three BSE categories, a re-assessment of the BSE categorisation at Union level may be decided. 

(3) Commission Decision 2007/453/EC2 lists the BSE status of countries or regions according to their BSE risk in Parts A, B or C of the Annex to that act. The countries or regions listed in Part A of that Annex are regarded as having a negligible BSE risk, those listed in Part B are regarded as having a controlled BSE risk, while Part C of that Annex provides that countries or regions not listed in Part A or B are to be regarded as having an undetermined BSE risk. 

(4) The United Kingdom with the exception of Northern Ireland currently fall within Part B of the Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC as countries with a controlled BSE risk. 

(5) On 29 May 2025, the WOAH World Assembly of Delegates adopted Resolution No 17, ‘Recognition of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Risk Status of Members’, which entered into force on 30 May 2025. This resolution recognised the zones of England and Wales, and Scotland in the United Kingdom as having a negligible BSE risk, in line with the criteria set out in the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code. After reassessment of the situation at Union level, stemming from WOAH Resolution No 17, the Commission has considered that the new WOAH BSE status of the zones of England and Wales, and Scotland in the United Kingdom should be reflected in the Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC. 

(6) The list of countries or regions in the Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC should therefore be amended so that the zones of England and Wales, and Scotland in the United Kingdom are listed in Part A of that Annex under countries or regions with a negligible BSE risk. 

(7) The Annex to Decision 2007/453/EC should therefore be amended accordingly. (8) The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,