Checks shall be carried out on the spot by veterinary experts of the Member States and the Commission to verify whether the provisions of this Directive, and in particular those of Article 12(2), are being applied in practice.

Should checks carried out within the terms of this Article bring to light serious facts as against an approved holding, the Commission shall immediately inform the Member States and forthwith adopt a decision provisionally suspending the approval. The final decision shall be taken in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 21(3).

The experts from the Member States who are to be entrusted with those checks shall be appointed by the Commission, acting on a proposal from the Member States.

Those checks shall be made on behalf of the Community, which shall bear the cost of any expenditure incurred in this connection.

The frequency of and the procedure for those checks shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 21(2).