Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Approximation of laws — Protection of plant health — Directive 77/93 — Import into the Community of plants originating in non-member countries and subject to special requirements — Special requirements which cannot be fulfilled at places other than that of origin — Affixing of an appropriate origin mark to plant packaging — Authorities empowered to issue phytosanitary certificates — Authorities of the country of origin — (Council Directive 77/93 (as amended by Directives 91/683, 92/103 and 98/2), Annex IV, Part A, Section 1, items 16.2 to 16.4)

Summary

On a proper interpretation of Directive 77/93 on protective measures against the introduction into the Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community, as amended, inter alia, by Directives 91/683, 92/103 and 98/2, the special requirement that an appropriate origin mark be affixed to the plants ' packaging, laid down in item 16.1 of Annex IV, Part A, Section I, to that directive, can be fulfilled only in the country of origin of the plants concerned.

In so far as the affixing of an appropriate origin mark enables exporters to be exempted from the requirements for an official statement in the country of origin, laid down in items 16.2 to 16.4, it would be paradoxical if such a mark, which is intended to certify the origin of products, could be issued outside the country of origin, after the plants have been exported. The simple fact that item 16.1 requires the mark to be affixed to the packaging confirms that that requirement must be fulfilled at the time of the initial packaging of the products with a view to their dispatch, necessarily before they are transported to a non-member country other than the country of origin.

Furthermore, the fact that the affixing of the mark exempts exporters from the requirements for an official statement laid down in items 16.2 to 16.4 precludes the mark from being affixed by the producer of the plants alone, without any possible involvement of the authorities empowered to make those official statements.

This interpretation of item 16.1 is not called into question by the amendments which Directive 98/2 made to items 16.2 and 16.3 and which were designed to render the requirements for an official statement mandatory in every case, including where the non-member country of origin is recognised as free from the harmful organisms in question.

The phytosanitary certificate required in order to bring those plants into the Community must, therefore, be issued in their country of origin by, or under the supervision of, the competent authorities of that country.

see paras 60-61, 66-67, 75, operative part