Regina v Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, ex parte S.P. Anastasiou (Pissouri) Ltd and Others.
Date: 2000-07-04
10 In Case C-432/92 Anastasiou and Others [1994] ECR I-3087 (Anastasiou I) the Court held that the Directive precluded acceptance by the national authorities of a Member State, when citrus fruit is imported from the northern part of Cyprus, of phytosanitary certificates issued by authorities other than the competent authorities of the Republic of Cyprus.
The main proceedings
22 It should first be observed that, as the Court held at paragraphs 61 and 62 of its judgment in Anastasiou I, the common system of protection against the introduction of harmful organisms in produce imported from non-member countries which is laid down in the Directive is based essentially on a system of checks carried out by experts lawfully empowered for that purpose by the Government of the exporting State and guaranteed by the issue of the appropriate phytosanitary certificate. The checks carried out by importing Member States at the frontier have significant limitations and, in any event, cannot take the place of phytosanitary certification.
23 Furthermore, in order to achieve the Directive's objectives, there must be cooperation between the authorities of the exporting State and those of the importing Member State, as the latter have to bring to the attention of the former any difficulties encountered regarding the phytosanitary certificates issued by them concerning, for example, contaminated products or certificates that are incorrect or have been interfered with (see Anastasiou I, paragraph 63).
24 Those considerations led the Court to hold in Anastasiou I that Member States may not accept phytosanitary certificates issued in the country of origin of the produce by the departments or officials of an entity that is not recognised. That does not necessarily imply that the Directive is to be interpreted as meaning that a Member State may not admit into its territory produce that is accompanied not by a phytosanitary certificate from the country of its origin but only by a certificate issued by a non-member consignor country.
35 As the United Kingdom Government has pointed out, it is physically and legally impossible for the Member States to make detailed enquiries of the authorities of a non-member country which has issued a phytosanitary certificate as to how the examination which preceded the issue of the certificate was carried out. For that reason, if it had to be accepted that any non-member country could issue phytosanitary certificates which enabled plants to be brought into the territory of the Community, without satisfying any conditions, subject only to frontier inspections the limitations of which were emphasised in Anastasiou I, there would ensue a loss of security contrary to the Community's interests as far as plant health matters - which the Directive is intended to protect - are concerned.
36 In the case of plants which are not subject to special requirements that can be satisfied only in their place of origin, the possibility of issuing certificates attesting to the absence of harmful organisms and compliance by the produce with the rules of the importing country must therefore, at the very least, be reserved to the non-member countries from which the plants were exported to the Community after having entered the territory of those countries and having remained there for such time and under such conditions as to enable the proper checks to be completed.
37 Such a proviso, compliance with which can be checked by the importing Member State by reference to the shipping documents, ensures cooperation between the exporting and importing States, the importance of which was emphasised in Anastasiou I, and reduces the various risks inherent in a situation in which products would be certified when they were merely passing through the territory of a non-member State.