(fra kommisjonsforordningen)

(1) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1646 lays down, among other things, provisions on sampling frequencies for pharmacologically active substances and residues thereof in the framework of national risk-based control plans and national randomised surveillance plans (‘the national plans’). 

(2) In the light of the experience gained with the possibility in the additional provisions of Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1646 of analysing Group A and Group B substances from a single animal and counting those samples towards the minimum sampling frequencies for both groups, it is appropriate to clarify that the risk criteria for taking a sample from the same animal for Group A and Group B substances are to be applied. In addition, that possibility should be extended to the national risk-based control plans for third-country imports referred to in Annex III to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1646. 

(3) Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1646 should therefore be amended accordingly. 

(4) As the rules laid down in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1646 are related to the relevant calendar year, the amendments made to that Implementing Regulation by this Regulation should apply for the first time to the 2027 national plans. This Regulation should therefore apply from 1 January 2027. 

(5) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,