2454 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Evaluation of the Community Plant Health Regime: Final Report
DG SANCO Evaluation Framework Contract Lot 3 (Food Chain)
products and more than 300,000 PCs are produced every year by the NL authorities leading to
the need to establish a computerised system for this task.
A large majority of respondents to the surveys are in favour of further developing the electronic
phytosanitary certification for the reasons that have already been listed above. Stakeholders have
further commented that electronic certification facilitates trade by reducing administrative
burden and paper work and that it fits into logistics for trade.
General survey results
Q3.9.n (CAs) and Q3.7.n (stakeholders):
Extent to which electronic certification should be further developed:
20 MS CA out of 25 and 17 stakeholders out of 24 consider that electronic certification should be further developed
(3 MS CA and 7 stakeholders do not know).
However, even if the benefits are well understood and accepted by the large majority of the
actors, a series of limitations and difficulties have been reported in the surveys and during the
interviews as follows:
Setting up electronic certification seems to work rather well today because only a limited
number of countries are engaged in the approach, on a case by case basis using bilateral
agreements. Difficulties of synchronisation of IT systems may appear when more countries
are developing this approach;
There is a question of how to develop multilateral agreements in this field;
EU legislation allows for electronic certification for import but this does not apply to
export, which are under the responsibility of the individual MS. Therefore MS can start
electronic certification on their own and no approval of the EU is needed. Collaboration
between MS is, however, required to secure harmonisation;
A digital signature is needed for determining the authenticity and integrity of the electronic
certificate;
Contingency planning is required to ensure that disruption to trade is minimal if the IT
system is down;
The principle of electronic certification is good and widely recognised but implementation
might be more difficult. Moreover, some MS might not have the financial capacity to set it
up and therefore the cost and level of organisational changes required for such
implementation could act as a barrier to the uptake of electronic certification for many
countries.
In conclusion, the outcomes of this evaluation are in line with the Council conclusions of
December 2008 on the safety of imported agricultural and agri-food products and compliance
with Community rules 118 , which stipulated and stressed that ―concerning harmonization of
procedures and coordination between inspection services, it is important to continue to improve
information technology systems and make procedures secure (in particular electronic
certification)”.
118 2917 th AGRICULTURE and FISHERIES Council meeting Brussels, 18 and 19 December 2008
Food Chain Evaluation Consortium 105