(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 (3) lays down veterinary certification requirements for imports into and transit, including storage during transit, through the Union of poultry and poultry products (‘the commodities’). It provides that the commodities are only to be imported into and transit through the Union from the third countries, territories, zones or compartments listed in columns 1 and 3 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I thereto.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 also lays down the conditions for a third country, territory, zone or compartment to be considered as free from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

(3)

The United Kingdom is listed in the table in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 as a third country from which imports into and transit through the Union of certain poultry commodities are authorised from certain parts of its territory depending on the presence of HPAI. The regionalisation of the United Kingdom was set out in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, as amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2205 (4).

(4)

However, in December 2020 the United Kingdom has confirmed further HPAI outbreaks of subtypes H5N8 and H5N1 in poultry holdings on its territory. Due to those outbreaks, further regionalisation of the country was set out in the Annex to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/1742 (5), as amended by Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/2240 (6), and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/2242 (7) in accordance with the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Withdrawal Agreement), without prejudice to the application of Union law to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement in conjunction with Annex 2 to that Protocol. As the measures for the control and eradication of those outbreaks continue after 31 December 2020, that regionalisation should be reflected in Regulation (EC) No 798/2008.

(5)

Moreover, after the publication of Implementing Decisions (EU) 2020/2240 and (EU) 2020/2242, the United Kingdom has confirmed further HPAI outbreaks within the zones established therein, which should also be reflected in Regulation (EC) No 798/2008.

(6)

The entry for the United Kingdom in the table in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should, therefore, be amended to take account of the current epidemiological situation in that third country.

(7)

Furthermore, as the regionalisation of the United Kingdom for those outbreaks was set out when Union law applied to that country in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, the protective measures in relation to the HPAI outbreaks confirmed in 2020 would have been lifted 30 days after the date of confirmation. It is appropriate, therefore, to indicate those dates as the dates as of when the areas under restriction due to the outbreaks confirmed in 2020 may again be considered as free from HPAI and imports into and transit through the Union of certain poultry commodities originating in those areas should be authorised again.

(8)

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(9)

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