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1.The competent authorities of the Member States may carry out all of the verifications they deem necessary to ensure that the provisions of this Regulation are correctly applied.
2.Verifications may, in particular, consist in examining the products, verifying declaration data and the existence and authenticity of documents, examining the accounts of operators and other records, inspecting means of transport, including containers and storage places of the products and carrying out official enquiries and other similar acts, in addition to the inspection of fishing vessels at port under Chapter II.
3.Verifications shall be focused towards risk identified on the basis of criteria developed at national or Community level under risk management. Member States shall notify to the Commission their national criteria within 30 working days after 29 October 2008 and update this information. The Community criteria shall be determined in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 54(2).
4.Verifications shall be carried out, in any case, where:
(a)the verifying authority of the Member State has grounds to question the authenticity of the catch certificate itself, of the validation seal or of the signature of the relevant authority of the flag State; or
(b)the verifying authority of the Member State is in possession of information that questions the compliance by the fishing vessel with applicable laws, regulations or conservation and management measures, or the fulfilment of other requirements of this Regulation; or
(c)fishing vessels, fishing companies or any other operators have been reported in connection with presumed IUU fishing, including those fishing vessels which have been reported to a regional fisheries management organisation under the terms of an instrument adopted by that organisation to establish lists of vessels presumed to have carried out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; or
(d)flag States or re-exporting countries have been reported to a regional fisheries management organisation under the terms of an instrument adopted by that organisation to implement trade measures vis-à-vis flag States; or
(e)an alert notice has been published pursuant to Article 23(1).
5.Member States may decide to carry out verifications at random, in addition to the verifications referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4.
6.For the purpose of a verification, the competent authorities of a Member State may request the assistance of the competent authorities of the flag State or of a third country other than the flag State as referred to in Article 14, in which case:
(a)the request for assistance shall state the reasons why the competent authorities of the Member State in question have well-founded doubts as to the validity of the certificate, of the statements contained therein and/or the compliance of the products with conservation and management measures. A copy of the catch certificate and any information or documents suggesting that the information on the certificate is inaccurate shall be forwarded in support of the request for assistance. The request shall be sent without delay to the competent authorities of the flag State or of a third country other than the flag State as referred to in Article 14;
(b)the procedure for verification shall be completed within 15 days of the date of the verification request. In the event that the competent authorities of the flag State concerned cannot meet the deadline, the verifying authorities in the Member State may, on request by the flag State or by a third country other than the flag State as referred to in Article 14 grant an extension of the deadline to reply, which shall not exceed a further 15 days.
7.The release of the products onto the market shall be suspended while awaiting the results of the verification procedures referred to in paragraphs (1) to (6). The cost of storage shall be borne by the operator.
8.Member States shall notify to the Commission their competent authorities for the checks and verifications of the catch certificates in accordance with Article 16 and paragraphs (1) to (6) of this Article.