1.As regards the slaughter premium granted for bovine animals exported to third countries in accordance with Article 116 of Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 and where a Member State makes use of the possibilities provided for in Article 53 of that Regulation, all loading operations shall be subject to on-the-spot checks, which shall be carried out as follows:
(a)at the time of loading, it shall be verified that all bovine animals are identified by ear tags; furthermore, at least 10 % of the bovine animals so verified shall be checked individually with a view to verifying their identification;
(b)at the time of the departure from the Community territory:
where an official customs seal has been applied to the means of transport, it shall be checked that the seal is undamaged; If the seal is undamaged a sample check shall only be carried out if there are doubts as to the regularity of the load;
where no official customs seal has been applied to the means of transport or where a customs seal is damaged, at least 50 % of bovine animals that were individually checked at the time of loading shall be checked again.
2.The animal passports shall be surrendered to the competent authority in accordance with Article 6(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000.
3.The paying agency shall scrutinise the aid applications on the basis of the payment files and other available information, paying particular attention to the documents relating to the export and the comments of the competent control authorities and shall check whether the animal passports have been surrendered in accordance with paragraph 2.