Annex I

What is CITES?

CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, entered into force in 1975 and has since become one of the most prominent international agreements in the field of species conservation. To date, there are 183 Parties to the Convention, including the EU and all EU Member States.

What are the core functions of CITES?

The aim of CITES is:

To ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants is not a threat to the conservation of the species in the wild.

CITES currently regulates trade in more than 37 000 species of fauna and flora, and works through a system of permits and certificates that must be obtained before international trade in specimens of species covered by the Convention can take place. Species are listed in three Appendices based on their conservation status and levels of international trade.

How is CITES governed?

CITES provides for a Secretariat and a Conference of the Parties (CoP), which play a major role in the functioning of the Convention. The CoP, which meets every three years, has established a number of permanent committees which play a significant role in between its triennial meetings. The CITES permanent committees are:

• the Standing Committee, which deals with policy, budgetary, administrative and enforcement issues;

• the Animals Committee, which deals with scientific issues relating to animals, and

• the Plants Committee, which deals with scientific issues of relevance to plants.

The provisions of CITES establish procedures for amending the Convention and its Appendices address enforcement measures to be taken by the Parties, the Convention’s effects on domestic legislation and on other international conventions, the resolution of disputes, ratification, accession and denunciation, and allow for the entry of reservations. The listing of species in Appendices I and II requires a two-thirds majority decision by the CoP. Parties can, however, list native species in Appendix III of their own initiative.

How do the Parties implement CITES?

Each Party must designate one or more Management Authorities responsible for issuing CITES permits and certificates, subject to the advice from one or more Scientific Authorities designated for that purpose (see also Section 9.1.2). The contact details of the competent Management and Scientific Authorities for each Party can be found on the website of the CITES Secretariat.

How are decisions made on the issuance of permits?

Conditions for the issue of permits and certificates for international trade in a species listed in the CITES Appendices include:

• questions with regard to whether or not trade will be detrimental to its survival;

• whether the specimens were legally acquired;

• the preparation for shipment of live specimens, and

• for Appendix I-listed species, whether the importer has suitable facilities to house and care for live specimens.

What permits are needed under CITES?

For specimens of species listed in Appendix I an import permit issued by the Management Authority of the importing country and an export permit (or re-export certificate) issued by the Management Authority of the (re-)exporting country will be required. These may be issued only if the specimen is not to be used for primarily commercial purposes and if the trade will be for purposes that are not detrimental to the survival of the species.

For specimens of species listed in Appendix II an export permit or re-export certificate issued by the Management Authority of the State of export or re-export is required. No import permit is needed unless required by national law.

For specimens of species listed in Appendix III either an export permit (if exported from the country that included the species in Appendix III) or a certificate of origin (if exported from any other country) is needed.

Are there any exemptions?

The Convention provides for several conditioned exemptions and derogations from its provisions (see Section 4). They concern transit and transhipment, specimens acquired before the Convention became applicable to them (pre-Convention specimens), certain specimens that are personal or household effects, captive-bred animals and artificially propagated plants, the exchange of specimens between scientists and scientific institutions, trade in biological samples, certificates for travelling exhibitions, certificates for the frequent non-commercial cross-border movement of musical instruments and CITES certificates for personal ownership. Such transactions/specimens are less strictly regulated.

How does CITES keep track of trade levels?

The monitoring of trade is an essential tool for achieving the aims of the Convention. The CITES monitoring system is based on the trade records to be kept by all Parties and to be reported to the CITES Secretariat on an annual basis. The Annual Reports (see Section 10.2.1) of all Parties together should provide statistical information on the total volume of legal and reported world trade in CITES species, which is an invaluable element for the assessment of their conservation status. These Annual Reports further reflect the “performance” of Parties regarding CITES implementation when all reported exports and re-exports are compared with all reported imports.

This system is also of immediate use to Scientific Authorities, which must take into consideration the trends and actual level of trade in Appendix II-listed species. They have to advise their Management Authorities of suitable measures to control the export of certain species whenever they determine that the export should be limited in order to maintain a species throughout its range at a level consistent with its role in the ecosystems and well above the level at which it might become eligible for inclusion in Appendix I.

What about Non-Parties?

There are a number of countries that are not Parties to CITES. The Convention addresses this situation by providing that Parties will require documentation from non-Parties that substantially conforms to the requirements for CITES permits and certificates.

Are there rules beyond the Convention itself?

The Convention text is further interpreted and elaborated upon by Resolutions that are passed by the CoP, as well as by operational Decisions that may recommend specific action by Parties. These Resolutions and Decisions are non-binding and lead to significant differences in implementation between Parties. The European Union (EU) implements most of them, except in a few cases where there are policy objections or where they conflict with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, which can only be amended by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 (and Regulation (EC) No 100/2008, Regulation (EU) No 791/2012, Regulation (EU) No 2015/870 and Regulation (EU) No 2023/966 which amend it) and Regulation (EU) No 792/2012 as amended (which also deleted and replaced certain provisions of Regulation (EC) No 865/2006) give effect to those Resolutions which the EU is implementing at present.

The EU in CITES

The initial text of the CITES Convention only foresaw membership by States, which meant that the EU (and before it the EC), as a regional organisation, could not become a Party to the Convention and was only an Observer. This has changed with the entry into force in November 2013 of an amendment to the Convention allowing Regional Economic Integration Organizations (REIO), such as the European Union, to become Contracting Parties to the Convention (“the Gaborone amendment”).¹

On that basis, the EU became a Party to CITES on 8 July 2015 and is the first (so far the only) REIO to accede to CITES since the coming into effect of the Gaborone amendment. The basis for EU accession to CITES is Council Decision (EU) No 2015/451². As a Party to CITES, the EU plays a full role in the work of the Convention. In cases of votes at CITES Conferences of the Parties on issues of EU relevance, the EU votes instead of the individual EU Member States (its vote counting for the number of Member States of the Union, in line with Article XXI(5) of the CITES Convention), on the basis of positions agreed in advance with the Member States.

How did CITES become part of EU law?

The EU has been implementing the Convention through common Regulations since 1984 (Council Regulation (EEC) No 3626/82³ and Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3418/83⁴). In 1982, only five of the – at that time – 10 Member States were Party to CITES (see Annex XV). The absence of systematic border controls between Member States, as a result of the Customs union, made implementation of CITES by individual Member States impossible. The two new Regulations entered into force on 1 January 1984 and were applicable in all EU Member States, including those that had not yet joined CITES at that time.

In December 1991, the Commission proposed that the Council replace the 1982 Regulation by a more comprehensive Regulation as of 1 January 1993, the date of completion of the “Single Market”. The almost total disappearance of internal trade controls of goods, capital, persons and services on that date made the revision of the 1982 Regulation necessary (particularly in order to increase the effectiveness of external border controls). There were other reasons for redesigning EU wildlife trade legislation. Disparate implementation by Member States of the EU Regulations and recommendations of the CoP had led to confusion and an increasing lack of harmonisation. Furthermore, the Regulations needed to be adapted to the evolution of wildlife trade control techniques and policies and to modern conservation and management policies.

It took the Council of the EU longer than expected to reach agreement on this new legislation. On 9 December 1996, the Council of Ministers adopted Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97⁵ on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein. Early the following year, the Commission adopted Commission Regulation (EC) No 939/97, laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97⁵ on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein. Both Regulations entered into force on 1 June 1997.

Since then, the above-mentioned Commission Regulation, has been replaced twice in order to take into account new provisions adopted at the meetings of the CoP. The most recent is Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 of 4 May 2006, which entered into force on 9 July 2006. This was subsequently amended – but not replaced – by Commission Regulation (EC) No 100/2008, Commission Regulation (EU) No 791/2012, Commission Regulation (EU) No 2015/870 and Commission Regulation (EU) No 2023/966. In addition, Articles 2 and 3, as well as Annexes I to VI, of Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 (regarding the design of permits certificates and other documents provided for in Regulation (EC) No 338/97) were deleted and replaced by the provisions of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 792/2012.

Regulation (EC) No 338/97 is directly applicable⁶ in all EU Member States and, together with Regulation (EC) 865/2006 (as amended), forms the legal basis for the implementation of CITES in the EU. These legal texts regulate international as well as EU internal wildlife trade and contain additional provisions to CITES.

Although the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations are directly applicable in all EU Member States, necessary enforcement provisions must be transferred into national legislation and supplemented with national laws for matters that remain under the sovereignty of each Member State, such as penalties. In addition, the EU has a range of veterinary and phytosanitary provisions, while each EU Member State has national and/or regional legislation relevant to biodiversity and species conservation, animal and plant welfare, and Customs matters.