31.5.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 141)7 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 456/2012 of 30 May 2012 amending Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007 on implementing rules for Council Directive 2000/75/EC as regards the control, monitoring, surveillance and restrictions on movements of certain animals of susceptible species in relation to bluetongue (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Council Directive 2000/75/EC of 20 November 2000 laying down specific provisions for the control and eradi- cation of bluetongue ('), and in particular Article 9(1)(c), Articles 11 and 12 and the third paragraph of Article 19 thereof, Whereas: 1 Commission Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007 (?) lays down rules for the control, monitoring, surveillance and restrictions on movements of animals, in relation to bluetongue, in and from the restricted zones. It also establishes the conditions for exemptions from the exit ban applicable to movements of susceptible animals, their semen, ova and embryos provided for in Directive 2000/75[EC, including rules on the use of vaccines against bluetongue. Under the current rules laid down in Directive 2000/75[EC, the use of vaccines against bluetongue is not permitted outside protection zones. Directive 2012/5/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 amending Council Directive 2000/75/EC as regards vaccination against bluetongue (?) makes the rules on vaccination laid down in Directive 2000/75/EC more flexible in order to allow vaccination with inactivated vaccines against bluetongue also outside the areas subject to animal movement restrictions. As a consequence, Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007 should be amended. Furthermore, amendments are necessary to simplify the process of monitoring and surveillance and to adapt the procedures established by Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007 to recent scientific opinions. For the purpose of gathering and analysing epidemi- ological information on bluetongue, Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007 provides that Member States are to transmit to the BlueTongue NETwork application (BT-Net system) information on bluetongue gathered in the course of the implementation of the bluetongue monitoring and surveillance programmes. 327, 22.12.2000, p. 74. 0J L 0] L 283, 27.10.2007, p. 37. 0J L 81, 21.3.2012, p. 1. ) () ) However, experience shows that there is sufficient information available in the framework of other existing Union disease notification and reporting obligations. The obligation to exchange information through the BT-Net system is therefore no longer necessary. Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 123/2009 (%) introduced the possibility for Member States to demarcate, under certain conditions, ‘lower risk areas to facilitate preventive vaccination in parts of their territory without virus circulation. As a consequence of the entry into force of Directive 2012/5/EU, whereby vacci- nation against bluetongue may be performed also outside restricted zones the provisions for the demarcation of ‘lower risk areas’ are no longer necessary. In accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1266/2007, a Member State may decide to remove an epidemiological geographical relevant area from a restricted zone, and thereby claim freedom from disease in that area after two years of absence of virus circulation as proven by monitoring. However, those parts of a restricted zone where for at least one year, including a full vector activity season, monitoring and surveillance show that no virus circu- lation of a specific bluetongue serotype or serotypes has taken place, are at risk of reintroduction of the disease by introduction of infectious animals from other parts of the same restricted zone where the blue- tongue virus is still circulating. For these situations, in order to provide for a safe transition towards freedom from disease under favourable  epidemiological conditions, Member States should be allowed to demarcate a ‘provisionally free area’ subject to the condition that monitoring and surveillance to ascertain the absence of virus circulation is carried out. According to the Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Animal Health and Welfare of the EFSA on the Risk of Bluetongue Transmission in Animal Transit’, adopted on 11 September 2008 (°), there is a theoretical possi- bility that infectious midges co-travel with the animals. That risk might be controlled by cleaning the vehicle and treating it with insecticides or repellents before loading the animals or when moving animals through areas known to be at low risk or at a period of time when () O] L 40, 11.2.2009, p. 3. (°) EFSA Journal 2008; 795, 18-65.