Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 35 U.K. Certificate

1. Competent authorities, or, where appropriate, control authorities or control bodies, shall provide a certificate to any operator or group of operators that has notified its activity in accordance with Article 34(1) and complies with this Regulation. The certificate shall:

(a) be issued in electronic form wherever possible;

(b) allow at least the identification of the operator or group of operators including the list of the members, the category of products covered by the certificate and its period of validity;

(c) certify that the notified activity complies with this Regulation; and

(d) be issued in accordance with the model set out in Annex VI.

2. Without prejudice to paragraph 8 of this Article and to Article 34(2), operators and groups of operators shall not place products referred to in Article 2(1) on the market as organic products or in-conversion products unless they are already in possession of a certificate as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

3. The certificate referred to in this Article shall be an official certificate within the meaning of point (a) of Article 86(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

4. An operator or a group of operators shall not be entitled to obtain a certificate from more than one control body in relation to activities carried out in the same Member State regarding the same category of products, including cases in which that operator or group of operators operates at different stages of production, preparation and distribution.

5. Members of a group of operators shall not be entitled to obtain an individual certificate for any of the activities covered by the certification of the group of operators to which they belong.

6. Operators shall verify the certificates of those operators that are their suppliers.

7. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 4 of this Article, products shall be classified in accordance with the following categories:

(a) unprocessed plants and plant products, including seeds and other plant reproductive material;

(b) livestock and unprocessed livestock products;

(c) algae and unprocessed aquaculture products;

(d) processed agricultural products, including aquaculture products, for use as food;

(e) feed;

(f) wine;

(g) other products listed in Annex I to this Regulation or not covered by the previous categories.

8. Member States may exempt from the obligation to be in the possession of a certificate, provided for in paragraph 2, operators that sell unpacked organic products other than feed directly to the final consumer, provided that those operators do not produce, prepare, store other than in connection with the point of sale, or import such products from a third country, or subcontract such activities to a third party, and provided that:

(a) such sales do not exceed 5 000 kg per year;

(b) such sales do not represent an annual turnover in relation to unpacked organic products exceeding EUR 20 000; or

(c) the potential certification cost of the operator exceeds 2 % of the total turnover on unpacked organic products sold by that operator.

If a Member State decides to exempt the operators referred to in the first subparagraph, it may set stricter limits than those set in the first subparagraph.

Member States shall inform the Commission and the other Member States of any decision to exempt operators pursuant to the first subparagraph and of the limits up to which such operators are exempted.

9. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 54 amending the model of the certificate set out in Annex VI.

10. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to provide details and specifications regarding the form of the certificate referred to in paragraph 1 and the technical means by which it is issued.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 55(2).