Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament of the CouncilShow full title

CHAPTER V Registration of professional operators and traceability

Article 65 Official register of professional operators

1. The competent authority shall keep and update a register containing the following professional operators who operate in the territory of the Member State concerned:

(a) professional operators introducing into, or moving within, the Union plants, plant products and other objects for which a phytosanitary certificate or a plant passport is required on the basis of the implementing acts adopted pursuant to Article 72(1), Article 73, Article 74(1), Article 79(1) and Article 80(1);

(b) professional operators authorised to issue plant passports in accordance with Article 89;

(c) professional operators who request the competent authority to issue the certificates referred to in Articles 100, 101 and 102;

(d) professional operators authorised to apply the marks referred to in Article 98, authorised to issue the attestations referred to in Article 99, providing information in accordance with Articles 45 or 55, introducing plants, plant products or other objects to frontier zones in accordance with Article 46(1) or Article 56, or carrying out activities concerning the relevant plants in demarcated areas, unless those operators are listed in another official register which is accessible to the competent authorities; and

(e) professional operators other than the ones referred to in points (a) to (d) of this subparagraph, if so required by an implementing act adopted pursuant to Article 28(1), Article 30(1), Article 41(2), Article 49(1), Article 53(2) or Article 54(2).

Member States may decide for further categories of growers or other professional operators to be registered if so justified by the pest risk presented by the plants that they grow or by any other of their activities.

2. A professional operator may be registered only once in the register of a competent authority. Where applicable, that registration shall be carried out with explicit references to each of the different premises referred to in point (d) of Article 66(2).

3. Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to a professional operator who fulfils one or more of the following criteria:

(a) it supplies exclusively and directly to final users small quantities of plants, plant products and other objects by means other than sales through distance contracts;

(b) it supplies exclusively and directly to final users small quantities of seeds, other than the seeds subject to Article 72;

(c) its professional activity concerning plants, plant products and other objects is limited to transporting them for another professional operator;

(d) its professional activity exclusively concerns the transport of objects of all kinds using wood packaging material.

Member States may decide not to apply the exemption referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph to all or certain growers or other professional operators if so justified by the pest risk presented by the plants that they grow or that are concerned by any other of their activities.

4. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 105 concerning one or more of the following:

(a) amending this Regulation by adding further categories of professional operators to be exempted from the application of paragraph 1 of this Article, where registration would constitute an administrative burden for them disproportionate to the low pest risk related to their professional activities;

(b) supplementing this Regulation by setting out particular requirements for the registration of certain categories of professional operators, taking into account the nature of the activity or of the plant, plant product or other object concerned;

(c) supplementing this Regulation by setting out the maximum figures for small quantities of particular plants, plant products or other objects as referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 3. Those figures shall be established as appropriate for the plants, plant products and other objects concerned and the respective pest risks.

Article 66 Procedure of registration

1. Professional operators falling within the scope of Article 65(1) shall submit to the competent authorities an application for registration.

2. The application for registration shall include the following elements:

(a) name, address in the Member State of registration and contact details of the professional operator;

(b) a statement concerning the intention of the professional operator to exercise one or more of the activities referred to in Article 65(1) concerning plants, plant products and other objects;

(c) a statement concerning the intention of the professional operator to carry out, as applicable, one or more of the following activities:

(i)

issuing of plant passports for plants, plant products and other objects pursuant to Article 84(1);

(ii)

placing of the mark on wood packaging material referred to in Article 96(1);

(iii)

issuing of any other attestation referred to in Article 99(1);

(d) address of the premises and, where applicable, the location of land plots used by the professional operator in the Member State concerned to carry out the activities referred to in Article 65(1) for the purpose of the registration; and

(e) the commodity types, families, genera or species of the plants and plant products and, where appropriate, the nature of other objects concerned by the activities of the professional operator, as referred to in Article 65(1).

3. The competent authorities shall register a professional operator without delay where the application for registration contains the elements set out in paragraph 2.

4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, a competent authority shall register a professional operator without the submission of an application for registration if that operator is registered in accordance with the third subparagraph of Article 6(5), Article 6(6) or point (b) of Article 13c(1) of Directive 2000/29/EC or national plant health rules and if all elements set out in paragraph 2 of this Article are available to that competent authority. Where relevant, the professional operator concerned shall submit an update of those elements by 14 March 2020.

5. Registered operators shall, where relevant, submit annually an update concerning any changes in the data referred to in points (d) and (e) of paragraph 2 and the statements referred to in points (b) and (c) of paragraph 2. That submission shall take place by 30 April of each year with regard to the updating of the data of the preceding year.

An application for updating the data referred to in point (a) of paragraph 2 shall be submitted no later than 30 days after the change in those data.

6. Where the competent authority becomes aware that the registered operator no longer carries out the activities referred to in Article 65(1), or that the elements included in the application submitted by the registered operator in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article are no longer correct, it shall request that operator to correct those elements immediately or within a specified period of time.

Where the registered operator does not correct those elements within the period of time set by the competent authority, the competent authority shall, as appropriate, amend or revoke the registration of that operator.

Article 67 Content of the register

The register shall contain the elements set out in points (a), (b), (d) and (e) of Article 66(2) and the following elements:

(a)

the official registration number, which shall include the two-letter code indicated in norm ISO 3166-1-alpha-2(1) for the Member State in which the professional operator is registered;

(b)

where applicable, an indication for which of the activities referred to in point (c) of Article 66(2) the professional operator is authorised, and, where applicable, the specific plants, plant products or other objects concerned.

Article 68 Availability of information of official registers

1. The Member State keeping the register shall make available, on reasoned request, the information contained therein to the other Member States or the Commission, for their own use.

2. The Member State keeping the register shall make available, on justified request, the information referred to in points (a) and (b) of Article 66(2) and point (b) of Article 67 concerning a particular registered operator to any professional operator established in the Union, for its own use.

3. This Article shall apply without prejudice to national and Union rules on confidentiality, access to information and private data protection.

Article 69 Traceability

1. A professional operator to whom plants, plant products or other objects are supplied that are subject to requirements or conditions pursuant to points (a) to (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 28(1), Article 28(2) and (3), Article 30(1), (3) and (4), Article 37(2), Article 41(2) and (3), Article 46(1) and (3), Article 48(1) and (2), Article 49(1), Article 54(2) and (3), Articles 56, 57 and 58 and Article 79(1) shall keep a record allowing that operator to identify, for each trade unit of plant, plant product or other object supplied, the professional operators who supplied it.

2. A professional operator supplying plants, plant products or other objects that are subject to requirements or conditions pursuant to points (a) to (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 28(1), Article 28(2), and (3), Article 30(1), (3) and (4), Article 37(2), Article 41(2) and (3), Article 46(1) and (3), Article 47(1), Article 48(1) and (2), Article 49(1), Article 54(2) and (3), Articles 56, 57 and 58 and Article 79(1) shall keep a record allowing that operator to identify, for each trade unit of plant, plant product or other object it supplied, the professional operators to whom it was supplied.

3. Where an authorised operator issues a plant passport pursuant to Article 84(1), and where the competent authority issues a plant passport pursuant to Article 84(2) for a registered operator, that operator shall ensure, for the purpose of ensuring traceability pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, that it records the following information as regards that plant passport:

(a) where applicable, the professional operator who supplied the trade unit concerned;

(b) the professional operator to whom the trade unit concerned was supplied; and

(c) relevant information relating to the plant passport.

4. Professional operators shall keep the records referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 for at least three years after the date on which the plant, plant product or other object concerned was supplied to or by them.

5. The Commission may, by means of implementing acts, set out the following elements:

(a) a shorter or longer minimum period than the one referred to in paragraph 4 with regards to specific plants, where so justified by the length of the cultivation period of those plants; and

(b) requirements as to the accessibility of the records to be kept by the professional operators referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 107(2).

6. On request, the professional operators referred to in paragraph 4 shall communicate the information in the records referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 to the competent authority.

7. This Article shall not apply to the professional operators referred to in points (c) and (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 65(3).

Article 70 Movements of plants, plant products and other objects within and between the premises of the professional operator

1. The professional operators who are supplied with, or supply, the plants, plant products or other objects referred to in Article 69(1) and (2) shall have in place traceability systems or procedures to allow identification of the movements of those plants, plant products and other objects within and between their own premises.

The first subparagraph shall not apply to the professional operators referred to in points (c) and (d) of the first subparagraph of Article 65(3).

2. The information identified by the systems or procedures referred to in paragraph 1 on the movement of the plants, plant products and other objects within and between the premises of the professional operators referred to in that paragraph shall be made available to the competent authority on request.

(1)

ISO 3166-1:2006, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country codes. International Organisation for Standardization, Geneva.