Pursuant to Article 32(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 and by way of derogation from paragraph 5(b) of Chapter III of Annex VIII to that Regulation, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Finland may continue to grant individual approvals, until F131 December 2006 at the latest, to operators of premises and facilities in conformity with national rules, to apply such rules, for the heat treatment process for manure, provided that the national rules:

1. (a)

   guarantee the overall reduction of pathogens;

2. (b)

   are only applied in premises and facilities that applied those rules on 1 November 2002; and

3. (c)

   comply with the rest of the requirements of Chapter III of Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002.