Council Directive 96/93/EC (repealed)Show full title

Article 3

1. The authority shall ensure that certifying officers have a satisfactory knowledge of the veterinary legislation as regards the animals or products to be certified and, in general, are informed as to the rules to be followed for drawing up and issuing the certificates and — if necessary — as to the nature and extent of the enquiries, tests or examinations which should be carried out before certification.

2. Certifying officers must not certify data of which they have no personal knowledge or which cannot be ascertained by them.

3. Certifying officers must not sign blank or incomplete certificates, or certificates relating to animals or products which they have not inspected or which have passed out of their control. Where a certificate is signed on the basis of another certificate or attestation, the certifying officer shall be in possession of that document before signing.

4. Nothing in this Article shall prevent an official veterinarian from certifying data which have been:

(a) ascertained on the basis of paragraphs 1 to 3 of this Article by another person so authorized by the competent authority and acting under the control of the official veterinarian, provided that he or she can verify the accuracy of the data, or

(b) obtained, within the context of monitoring programmes, by reference to officially recognized quality assurance schemes or by means of an epidemiological surveillance system

where this is authorized under veterinary legislation.

5. Detailed rules for implementing this Article may be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 7.