The application may be made for the use of a generic descriptor in one or more Member States. This application shall be submitted to the national competent authority of a single Member State (hereafter referred to as the ‘recipient Member State’). Operators may choose the Member State to which to submit their application among those Member States where the generic descriptor is used.

The application shall be submitted electronically including all the elements listed in Part B of this Annex. Member States may request a paper copy if they require it. For the data referred to in Part B, points 1.5 and 2 of this Annex a list of references alone is not sufficient.

• acknowledge receipt of the application in writing within 14 days of its receipt. The acknowledgement shall state the date of receipt of the application,

• inform without delay the Commission by forwarding the summary of the application,

• where appropriate, forward the full application to any other Member State(s) for which the application concerning the use of the generic descriptor is made (hereafter referred to as the ‘Member State(s) concerned’),

• if the Member State(s) concerned consider(s) that the application does not contain data and information as foreseen in Part B of the Annex, it/they shall inform the recipient Member State within 4 weeks.

The recipient Member State shall verify, without delay, and taking into account information provided by the Member State(s) concerned, whether the application contains all required information as listed in Part B of this Annex. Where the application does not contain all the elements required under Part B of this Annex, the recipient Member State shall request the necessary additional information from the applicant and inform the applicant of the period within which that information shall be provided.

An application shall be considered as not valid in cases where an applicant does not provide further information as requested by the recipient Member State. In such a case the recipient Member State shall inform the applicant, the Commission and any other Member State(s) concerned indicating the reasons why the application is considered not valid. The applicant shall be given the possibility to re-submit the same application excluding the Member State(s) for which requested data was not provided.

The recipient Member State shall forward the valid application to the Commission and to all Member States, without delay and inform the applicant thereof. The Commission shall acknowledge receipt of the valid application to the recipient Member State in writing within 14 days of its receipt.

The recipient Member State and the Member State(s) concerned shall provide their opinion to the Commission within 6 weeks from the date of transmission of the valid application. The opinion shall state whether the generic descriptor fulfils the conditions for obtaining an exemption pursuant to Article 1(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, and whether it is supported by the elements referred to in Part B, points 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and, as the case may be, point 2 of this Annex, and shall give the reasons justifying that opinion. The opinions shall be submitted in writing. Other Member States may also provide their opinion on the application to the Commission by the same deadline and under the same modalities.

After receiving the valid application from a Member State, and the opinion(s) referred to in point 7 of this Part of the Annex, the Commission may, within a reasonable time, initiate the procedure of approval of the generic descriptor pursuant to Article 1(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.