Particular concern was highlighted in the paper by meat and other food importers complaining about the need to present an original paper certification of organic authenticity to EU Customs officials.
Under EU regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products, these certificates must be authenticated at production sites by an EU regulator or official from a country whose organic standards the EU deems sufficiently rigorous. Once that certificate is accepted by EU Customs, organic imports are cleared for sale in all 27 member states.
However, said the report: “Operators consider the obligation to submit an original certificate of inspection as burdensome, due to the potential delays [involving] forwarding the original certificate and call for the possibility of submitting electronic certificates of inspection.”
The Commission will now check the feasibility of issuing electronic certificates through a secured database for control, clearance and supervision purposes. This would “offer faster clearance to operators”, said the report. It would also hasten the tracing of organic products found by tests to be breaking EU organic standards: it would “facilitate quick response by member states in cases of infringement by blocking non-compliant products”, added the report.
A report following a review of the EU’s organic certification system noted that paper-based procedures prevented Customs from releasing swift alerts to retailers and distributors if their suppliers’ organically-declared meat was found breaking EU organic meat standards.
