L 219/40 Official Journal of the European Union 14.8.2008 DIRECTIVES COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/73EC of 15 July 2008 simplifying procedures of listing and publishing information in the veterinary and zootechnical fields and amending Directives 64/432EEC, 77/504/EEC, 88/407/EEC, 88/661/EEC, 89/361/EEC, 89/556/EEC, 90/426/EEC, 90/427[EEC, 90/428/EEC, 90/429/EEC, 90[539/EEC, 91/68/EEC, 91/496/EEC, 92[35/EEC, 92/65[EEC, 92/66/EEC, 92/119/EEC, 94/28/EC, 2000/75[EC, Decision 2000/258/EC and Directives 2001/89/EC, 2002/60/EC and 2005/94/EC (Text with EEA relevance) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 37 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament, Having regard to the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee, Whereas: Community legislation in the veterinary field provides that assembly centres for bovine, porcine, caprine and ovine animals, equine marshalling centres, dealers of those animals, poultry establishments, semen collection or storage centres and embryo collection or production teams and certain bodies, institutes and centres (‘animal health establishments’) are to comply with certain conditions and must be officially approved by Member States for intra-Community trade in certain live animals and their products, and in particular animal genetic materials, such as semen, ova and embryos. Community legislation provides for different procedures with regard to the registration, listing, updating, trans- mission and publication of those animal health estab- lishments. However, differences in the procedures make the listing and the updating complicated and the practical use of those lists for the competent control services and the concerned operators very difficult. Therefore those procedures should be harmonised and provide for more systematic, coherent and uniform rules with regard to the five key elements of such procedures, namely registration, listing, updating, trans- mission and publication of the lists. In addition, since it is for the Member States to control the conditions that must be fulfilled by the different animal health establishments in order to be listed, the responsibility for the drawing up of the lists should lie with the Member States and not the Commission. Member States should therefore draw up and keep up-to- date lists of the animal health establishments concerned and make them available to the other Member States and to the public. In order to harmonise the model forms of those lists and the way to achieve simple access to up-to- date lists for the Community, common criteria need to be established under a comitology procedure. In the interests of clarity and consistency of Community rules, this new procedure should also apply in the zootechnical field, in particular to breeding associations approved for maintaining or establishing herd books in Member States and to information to be provided by Member States regarding equine competitions in accordance with Council Directive 90/428/EEC of 26 June 1990 on trade in equidae intended for compe- titions and laying down the conditions for participation therein (1). Similarly to the rules applied to intra-Community trade, imports of semen, ova and embryos are regulated in such a way that the animal health establishments of origin in third countries are to fulfil certain conditions in order to minimise animal health risks. Accordingly, imports into the Community of such genetic materials should only be authorised from semen collection or storage centres and embryo collection or production teams officially approved for export to the Community by the competent authorities of the third country concerned in accordance with Community requirements and following Community veterinary inspections, where appropriate. () O] L 224, 18.8.1990, p. 60.