How the European Commission will deal with the information about the application for accreditation of certification bodies with equivalent certification, some of which deserve attention.

1. Certification bodies applying to the EU for certification of organic production outside the EU and equivalent recognition of the EU will not be accepted if they are certified only according to EU standards. They need standards that include production rules and controls. This standard must also be considered equivalent after being evaluated by the evaluation agency before the application can be submitted to the European Commission (the deadline for application is October 31 of each year).

2. It is probably unacceptable to explain the differences by referring to EU regulations 834/2007 and 889/2008. It should also be noted that when the certification authority fully implements the EU rules and regulations, the current approach to reaching the standard will not be opened. This information can be found at the Advisory Office of the Council of European Organic Certification Bodies (EOCC), where the European Commission replied to a series of questions from members of the Council of European Organic Certification Bodies.

3. Another concern is that certification bodies must carry out activities in one or more countries before applying for EU accreditation. In other words, it is impossible for the certification body to be accepted only if it has an application plan to carry out activities. Imported products from "new" countries must go through the import approval procedure (importer approval/11.6 approval) currently being implemented, which will last at least until January 1, 2013.

At the same time, it is also clear that the assessment institution must conduct a witness audit on at least one non EU country of the certification institution applying for accreditation. Only the EU accreditation report is not enough.