belgiquelex.be - Carrefour Bank of Legislation

9 DECEMBER 2004. - Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety Funding Act (1)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
CHAPTER I^er. - General provisions
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 78 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. For the purposes of this Act, it shall be understood by:
1° the Act of 4 February 2000: the Act of 4 February 2000 on the establishment of the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain;
2° the Agency: the Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety;
3° the Minister: the Minister who has public health in his duties;
4° the managing director: the managing director of the Agency;
5th Advisory Committee: the Advisory Committee referred to in section 7 of the Act of 4 February 2000;
6° produces: any product or material within the Agency's jurisdiction under the Act of 4 February 2000;
7° operator: any natural or legal person whose activity is subject to Agency control.
CHAPTER II. - Financing
Art. 3. § 1^er. The Agency is funded by:
1st appropriations in the expenditure budget;
2° contributions, imposed on operators under Article 4;
3° retributions, imposed on operators under Article 5;
4° accidental recipes;
5° voluntary or contractual contributions;
6° the revenues from the European Union relating to its activities;
7° administrative fines resulting from the exercise of its control skills;
8° the sums recovered;
9° the recipes of its laboratories;
10th gifts and bequests;
11° with the agreement of the competent Minister for Finance, the proceeds of the placement of financial reserves.
§ 2. The Agency is authorized, with the approval of the Minister of Finance, to borrow money that may be guaranteed by the State and to have its financial reserves.
Art. 4. § 1^er. The King, after the advice of the Advisory Committee, determines by order deliberately in the Council of Ministers the amount of contributions referred to in Article 3, § 1^er, 2°, as well as the deadlines and modalities of their perception.
The amounts are fixed according to the risks to the safety of the food chain related to the product or activity of the operator.
They may be fixed according to the level of organisation and application of the system of internal control of the operator's activity, according to the criteria set out in accordance with Article 4, § 3, of the Royal Decree of 22 February 2001 organizing the controls carried out by the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain and amending various legal provisions.
They can also be fixed according to the importance of the operator's activity as well as the quantity or value of the products.
§ 2. The King may determine by order deliberately in the Council of Ministers, after the advice of the Advisory Committee, the contributions that may be subject to a repercussion, total or partial, between operators and its terms and conditions of application.
Art. 5. The King, after the advice of the Advisory Committee, determines by order deliberately in the Council of Ministers, for the Agency's controls and services, the amount of the remuneration referred to in Article 3, § 1^er, 3° as well as the deadlines and modalities of their perception.
Art. 6. § 1^er. The King is empowered, within the limits of the execution of sections 4 and 5, to repeal, supplement, amend, replace and coordinate the legal provisions of the laws referred to in section 5 of the Act of 4 February 2000, as well as the Act of 24 December 1976 relating to the budget proposals 1976-1977, of the organic law of 27 December 1990 creating budgetary funds, of the law of 17 March 1993 relating to the creation of a budgetary fund for production and protection
§2. The powers conferred on the King by § 1^er expire two years after this Act comes into force.
Art. 7. Royal orders issued pursuant to Articles 4 and 6 are repealed in full law with retroactive effect on the date of their entry into force when they were not confirmed by the legislator within eighteen months of their publication to the Belgian Monitor.
Art. 8. The King, after the advice of the advisory committee, may impose, in order to guarantee payment of contributions and remuneration, the constitution by any operator of a surety to which He sets the amounts and terms.
Art. 9. The King may, by Royal Decree deliberated in the Council of Ministers, set out the terms and the amount of a specific provision to finance the operational costs related to the management of unforeseen incidents in the food chain.
Art. 10. The contributions and awards referred to in sections 4 and 5 are adapted annually, according to the October index, to the evolution of the UK Consumer Price Index.
The starting index is that of the month of October before the publication to the Belgian Monitor of the Royal Decree setting the amount of the contribution or retribution.
The indexed amounts are published in the Belgian Monitor and are applicable to assessed contributions and awards due from 1^er January of the year following that during which the adaptation was made.
CHAPTER III. - Administrative procedures and sanctions
Art. 11. § 1^er. Notwithstanding the introduction of the appeal referred to in § 2, the amount of contributions and retributions, unpaid at the due date of payment, bears, in full right and without delay, an interest calculated at the legal rate.
In addition, the amount is automatically increased by 10%.
The amount unpaid fifteen calendar days after sending a first bet is automatically increased by 50%.
The sending of a second stay will automatically double the unpaid initial amount.
The King sets the deadlines and procedures for notification of stays.
These rebuttals reproduce the text of this paragraph.
§ 2. Before the due date referred to in § 1^erParagraph 1^erthe operator may, by registered letter to the position with the Agency's delegated administrator, file a reasoned appeal to which supporting documents are attached.
This appeal suspends the time limit for the release of the notices.
Within 30 days of receiving this appeal, the delegated administrator or his delegate shall notify the operator of his decision with, where appropriate, a new invitation to pay the amount owing, increased, in the event that the appeal was declared unfounded, in accordance with the provisions of § 1^erParagraphs 1^er and 2.
§ 3. Where controls are impossible or made more difficult or where required documents or data are lacking or inaccurate, the amount of contributions shall be determined on the basis of the evidence collected.
Art. 12. § 1^er. In the event of non-payment by the operator, after the second re-entry, of the contributions or retributions referred to in sections 4 and 5, as well as of the increases and delayed interests referred to in section 11, any approval, authorization, licence or registration granted to that operator by the Minister or by the Agency and, where applicable, the performance of the expertise and the issuance of certificates shall be suspended from the fifteenth day after which the notice is issued.
The above measures cease to have effect on the first business day following the day on which the amounts due, including increases and late interest, were effectively credited to the Agency's account.
The second statement remains the text of the present paragraph.
§ 2. Where it is found by notice that the operator is opposed to the investigations referred to in section 15 or makes them more difficult, or knowingly provides inaccurate or incomplete information or documents, any approval, authorization, licence or registration granted to that operator by the Minister or the Agency and, where applicable, the performance of the expertise and the issuance of certificates shall be suspended.
This suspension is notified to the offender simultaneously at the transmission of the minutes and takes effect immediately.
The above measures cease their effects when it is found by minutes that the operator complies with the control requirements.
Art. 13. § 1^er. Without prejudice to the obligation to preserve the confidential nature of certain data, imposed by other laws, federal public services Finance and Economy, P.M.E., Average Classes and Energy provide the Agency, on a simple request, with all information and data in their possession that the Agency considers useful in the determination and collection of the amounts referred to in sections 4, 5 and 11, and lets it take copies or extracts.
§ 2. Without prejudice to the obligation to preserve the confidential nature of certain data, imposed by other laws, the Agency provides to federal public services who request all information and data in its possession that they consider useful to the execution of their missions and let them take copies or extracts.
Art. 14. In the event of a failure to pay the amounts referred to in sections 4, 5 and 11, the Agency shall continue to collect the amounts in the competent courts.
CHAPTER IV. - Control and criminal sanctions
Art. 15. § 1^er. Without prejudice to the powers of judicial police officers, the members of the statutory or contractual personnel of the Agency designated for that purpose by the Minister shall monitor the execution of this Act and the orders made pursuant to it.
Staff members shall be sworn in, prior to the performance of their duties, in the hands of the Minister or his delegate.
§ 2. In the performance of their duties, the personnel referred to in § 1^er may:
1° enter at any time and invest in any place likely to be affected to the activity of the operator as well as in any place where may be either products, documents, books, data carriers or other elements useful to the execution of their mission.
They may visit the premises used exclusively for housing between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. for leave by the police court judge;
2° carry out all relevant findings and investigations, with the possible assistance of experts selected from a list prepared by the Minister.
The experts who had not taken the oath prescribed by the decree of 20 July 1831 concerning the oath to the implementation of the representative constitutional monarchy will take it into the hands of the Peace Judge;
3° hear the operator or any other person present at the place visited or whose hearing may be useful to the execution of their mission;
4° to be communicated all the information and to be filed on first requisition and without displacement any documents, documents, books or information materials that they consider useful to their research.
When the review of the documents concerned requires it, or their copy cannot be done on site, they may take them for a period of three working days, at the outset of their inventory, a copy of which is given to the holder;
5° retain evidence of their intervention by any useful means, including copies and records;
6° seize, by administrative measure and for a period of thirty days, the documents, documents, books or information materials necessary to prove an offence or to search for its authors, sponsors and accomplices.
The administrative seizure is terminated by order of the person having ordered it, on the expiry of the period or by the final seizure.
In the event of an offence, the documents referred to in paragraph 1^er are the subject of a final seizure and shall be deposited in the court's office until, in respect of their confiscation and their possible return, it has been decided on the offence or, in the event of an unrestrained classification, until the seizure by the public prosecutor has been released;
7° to request assistance from the police forces;
8° use the information and data referred to in Article 13, § 1^er.
§ 3. They seek and note the breaches of this Act and its enforcement orders by minutes of evidence to the contrary.
A copy of the record is forwarded to the offender within 30 days of the day after the offence was found.
Art. 16. § 1^er. Without prejudice to the possible application of more severe penalties, established by the Penal Code or by special criminal laws, is punishable by a fine of one hundred to five thousand euros:
1° the person who fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the repercussion of contributions or affects the contributions without the repercussion being authorized, or
2° the person who opposes visits, inspections, controls, requests for information or documents, seizures and other investigations of persons of the authority referred to in section 15 or makes them more difficult, or
3° who knowingly provides information or communicates inaccurate or incomplete documents.
§ 2. The provisions of Book 1^erincluding those of Chapter VII and Article 85 of the Penal Code are applicable to offences referred to in § 1^er.
CHAPTER V. - Right of appeal
Art. 17. Where an offence to the provisions of this Act, the provisions of one of the laws under its supervisory powers, or their enforcement orders, and the regulations of the European Union, result in additional checks for the Agency, the Agency shall charge the offenders with the recovery of the related costs, including personnel costs.
The action can be exercised at the same time as criminal proceedings and before the same Judge. It can also be exercised for the first time in the level of appeal.
CHAPTER VI. - Amendments
Art. 18. § 1^er. In article 14, paragraph 3, of the law of February 4, 2000, the words "and points 8° and 9° of section 10," are deleted.
§ 2. In Article 6, § 6, paragraph 2, of the Royal Decree of 22 February 2001 organizing the controls carried out by the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain and amending various legal provisions, the words "Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 10, paragraph 4, of the Act of 4 February 2000" are replaced by the words "Without prejudice to the provisions of the Act of 9 December 2004 relating to the financing of the Federal Agency for Security".
CHAPTER VII. - Abrogatory provisions
Art. 19. The Act of 4 February 2000 is repealed:
1. Article 10;
2. Article 14, paragraphs 5 and 6.
Promulgate this law, order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels, 9 December 2004.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Finance,
D. REYNDERS
Minister of Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade
and the Science Policy,
Mr. VERWILGHEN
Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health,
R. DEMOTTE
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. L. ONKELINX
____
Note
(1) Session 2003-2004:
House of Representatives.
Documents. - 51-1228: Number 1: Bill. - No. 2: Amendment. - Number three: Report. - No. 4: Text corrected by the Commission. - No. 5: Text adopted in plenary and transmitted to the Senate.
Full report. - 15 July 2004.
Senate.
Documents. - 3-817: No. 1: Project not referred to by the Senate.