FSA Letter (FSH 0146), 1 December 2008
You will be aware that (EC) Regulations 1019/2008, 1020/2008 and 1021/2008 amending certain provisions of (EC) Regulations 852/2004, 853/2004 and 854/2004 in so far as they relate to fishery products and live bivalve molluscs have been published and are now in force.
Further to this, the European Commission asked Member States at its working group meeting of 24th November to consider a further suite of proposed amendments to the current hygiene legislation in these areas and provide written comments by 19 th December. Appendix 1 to this letter summarises the proposals relating to the provisions for live bivalve molluscs (LBMs) in Annex III of Regulation 853/2004 and, where appropriate, outlines the current FSA position. For information, a supplementary background note on marine gastropods, echinoderms and tunicates is included as Appendix 2.
Due to the short time available to respond to the Commission, we are carrying out a targeted consultation to seek the initial views of stakeholders to assist discussions at the next Commission Working Group meeting in January 2009. I should therefore be grateful for your comments on each of the proposals using the stakeholder response template in Appendix 3 no later than 10th December to allow us time to prepare the UK response and subsequent negotiating lines.
This consultation is being sent to stakeholders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Separate consultation is being carried out in Scotland. We anticipate that further stakeholder consultation opportunities will be available during the development of these European proposals.