TITLE IVADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION

Article 106Assistance in the event of non-compliance creating a risk or a repeated or potentially serious infringement

1

Where, during official controls performed on animals or goods originating in another Member State, the competent authorities establish that such animals or goods do not comply with the rules referred to in Article 1(2) in such a way as to create a risk to human, animal or plant health, animal welfare or, as regards GMOs and plant protection products, also to the environment, or to constitute a potentially serious infringement of those rules, they shall, without delay, notify the competent authorities of the Member State of dispatch and of any other concerned Member State in order to enable those competent authorities to undertake appropriate investigations.

2

The notified competent authorities shall without delay:

a

acknowledge receipt of the notification;

b

where the notifying competent authority so specifies, indicate what investigations they intend to carry out; and

c

investigate the matter, take all necessary measures and inform the notifying competent authorities of the nature of the investigations and official controls performed, of the decisions taken and of the reasons for such decisions.

3

If the notifying competent authorities have reason to believe that the investigations performed or the measures taken by the notified competent authorities do not adequately address the non-compliance established, they shall request the notified competent authorities to complement the official controls performed or the measures taken. In such cases the competent authorities from the two Member States shall:

a

seek an agreed approach with the aim of appropriately addressing the non-compliance, including through joint official controls and investigations performed in accordance with Article 104(3); and

b

inform the Commission without delay where they are not able to agree on appropriate measures.

4

When official controls performed on animals or goods originating in another Member State show repeated cases of non-compliance as referred to in paragraph 1, the competent authorities of the Member State of destination shall inform the Commission and the competent authorities of the other Member States without delay.