Certificates shall be issued by the exporting third country, based on the models set out in Annexes II and III according to the layout of the model that corresponds to the products of animal origin concerned.
They shall contain, in the numbered order that appears in the model, the attestations that are required for any third country and, as the case may be, those supplementary guarantees that are required for the exporting third country or part thereof.
If the Member State of destination imposes, for the products of animal origin concerned, additional certification requirements, attestations to certify that those requirements are fulfilled shall also be incorporated in the original form of the certificate.
Where the model certificate states that certain statements shall be kept as appropriate, statements which are not relevant, may be crossed out nd initialled and stamped by the certifying officer, or completely deleted from the certificate.
A separate and unique certificate must be provided for the products of animal origin that are exported from a territory or territories or zone or zones of the same exporting country listed or referred to in Annex I which are consigned to the same destination and transported in the same railway wagon, lorry, aircraft or ship.
The original of each certificate shall consist of a single sheet of paper, or, where more text is required it must be in such a form that all sheets of paper required are part of an integrated whole and indivisible.
The certificate shall be drawn up in at least one of the official languages of the Member State of the border inspection post of entry of the consignment into the EU and of the Member State of destination. However, those Member States may authorise the certificate to be drawn up in the official language of another Member State, and accompanied, if necessary, by an official translation.
If for reasons of identification of the items of the consignment (schedule in point I.28 of the model certificate), additional sheets of paper are attached to the certificate, those sheets of paper shall also be considered as forming part of the original of the certificate by the application of the signature and stamp of the certifying officer, on each of the pages.
When the certificate, including additional sheets of paper referred to in (f), comprises more than one page, each page shall be numbered, (page number) of (total number of pages), at the end of the page and shall bear the certificate reference number that has been designated by the competent authority at the top of the pages.
The original of the certificate must be completed and signed by an official veterinarian or by another designated official inspector where this is provided for in the model certificate. The competent authorities of the exporting third country shall ensure that rules of certification equivalent to those laid down in Council Directive 96/93/EC(1) are followed.
The colour of the signature shall be different from that of the printing. This requirement also applies to stamps other than those embossed or watermarked.
The certificate reference number referred to in boxes I.2 and II.a. must be issued by the competent authority.
Council Directive 96/93/EC of 17 December 1996 on the certification of animals and animal products (OJ L 13, 16.1.1997, p. 28).