Mutual recognition of goods

According to the principle of Mutual Recognition, goods that do not fall under theharmonized legislation of the Union or is only partially covered by it, which is legallymarketable in a Member State of the single European territory, should not be hindered orprohibited in another Member State in accordance with Articles 34 and 35 of the Treatyestablishing the European Community.

Member States may restrict the movement of goods lawfully marketed in another MS, wherethis is justified on the grounds listed in Article 36 TFEU or under another overriding reasonof public interest, recognized by the case law of the European Court of Justice on the freemovement of goods.

Regulation (EU) 2019/515 improves the rules and procedures for the application of theprinciple of mutual recognition and eliminates the malfunctions of the current Regulation(EC) 764/2008.

In more detail, Regulation (EU) 2019/515:

• applies to goods legally circulating in another member state, including agricultural andfishing products (Article 2 “Scope”)
• applies to goods legally circulating in another member state, including agricultural andfishing products (Article 2 “Scope”)
• determines the assessment procedure by the competent authority of the Member State ofdestination (Article 5 “Assessment of goods”, for the goods subject of the Regulation, to beassessed whether are legally circulating in the market of another member state, and complywith the existing national rules of the destination member state.
• defines a new procedure for resolving issues between economic operators and nationalauthorities for the administrative decisions issued, based on SOLVIT procedure(www.ec.europa.eu/solvit). Commission’s opinion may be issued on administrative decisions
  prohibiting, impeding or restricting the handling of products (Article 8 “Problem SolvingProcedure”).

Terms and conditions for placing goods on the single market

“Goods lawfully placed on the market of another MS, means goods or goods of that kindwhich comply with the rules in force in that MS or are not subject to any relevant rulestherein and are made available to end users in that MS.

1. Where a marketing authorization or pre-authorization is not provided for the placing on themarket of a destination MS, goods which are lawfully marketed in a MS may be placed on themarket of the destination MS without the economic operator having to contact with theauthorities of the destination MS. Economic operators may place goods on the market of thedestination MS, provided that no administrative decision of the MS authorities on temporarysuspension, or restriction, or denial of access to the market for the products in question isissued.
2. Where a marketing authorization or pre-authorization is provided for the placing of goodson the market of the destination MS, economic operators shall submit a request to thecompetent authority before placing their goods on the market. In the event that economicoperators place the goods on the market of the destination MS without obtaining the requiredmarketing authorization or pre-approval, placing on the market may not be permitted and theMutual Recognition Regulation does not apply.
3. If economic operators have already obtained prior authorization or pre-approval for theirgoods at the MS of origin, the whole procedure should not be repeated at the MS ofdestination. The competent authorities in the MS of destination are obliged to take intoaccount all the documents collected for the purposes of the prior authorization procedure inthe MS of origin, and therefore, the product marketing authorization should be less complexand without repeating checks.

Assessment of goods

The producer of the goods (as defined in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/515), made avail-able on the market of MS of destination, may draw up an optional declaration of lawfullyplacing on the market the goods in question for the purposes of mutual recognition. (“Decla-ration of mutual recognition”), in order to prove to the competent authorities of the MS ofdestination that the products are lawfully placed on the market of another MS. The producermay authorize his representative to draw up the declaration of mutual recognition on his be-half.

The declaration of mutual recognition is available in all official languages, in the ANNEX tothe Mutual Recognition Regulation: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R0515 and consists of two parts: (link to the Declaration of Mu-tual Recognition).

The producer or his duly authorized representative may supplement the declaration of mutualrecognition only with the information set out in Part I of the Annex. In this case, the informa-tion set out in Part II of the Annex shall be completed by the importer or distributor. Alterna-tively, both parts of the declaration of mutual recognition may be completed by the importeror by the distributor, provided that the signatory can provide the required evidence.When the competent authorities decide to evaluate goods placed on the market of the destina-tion MS, they shall contact and inform the economic operator of the following:

• the goods subject to assessment,
• the applicable national technical rule or the pre-approval procedure,
• the possibility of submitting a declaration of mutual recognition for the purposes of the as-sessment.

Once the declaration of mutual recognition has been submitted together with the evidencenecessary for the verification of the information contained therein, the competent authorityshall not require any other information or documentation from the economic operator.In case that a declaration of mutual recognition is not provided to a competent authority of theMember State of destination, the competent authority may request the economic operator toprovide the documentation and information necessary for such assessment concerning the fol-lowing: (a) the characteristics of the goods or type of goods and b) the lawful marketing ofthe goods in another Member State (MS).

Where, on completion of the goods assessment process, the MS authorities issue an adminis-trative decision, it should contain at least the following information:

• the national technical rule on which the administrative decision is based,
• the reasons in the public interest justifying the application of the national technical rule onwhich the administrative decision is based,
• the reasons in the public interest justifying the application of the national technical rule onwhich the administrative decision is based,
• the technical or scientific evidence examined by the competent authority of the MS of desti-nation,
• a summary of the arguments put forward by the economic operator concerned,
• evidence that the administrative decision is appropriate to achieve the objective pursued andthat the administrative decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve thatobjective,
• the available remedies in accordance with the national legislation of the destination MS andthe deadlines that apply to these remedies. It also includes a reference to the ability of eco-nomic operators to make use of the SOLVIT process (https://ec.europa.eu/solvit/index_en.htm).

In the event that the economic operator does not agree with the reasons for restricting ordenying market access to the destination MS, the economic operator may use the SOLVITproblem-solving process as soon as possible and / or the remedies provided by the nationalsystem of the destination MS.

The economic operator will have at least 15 working days following the request of thecompetent authority of the Member State of destination to submit the above mentioneddocuments and information.

Remedies

In the event of a dispute between a Greek authority and an economic operator concerning themutual recognition of goods, following an administrative decision restricting or denyingaccess to the market, the economic operator may use the SOLVIT problem solving procedureas soon as possible and / or remedies provided by the Greek administration

SOLVIT process

SOLVIT is an online problem-solving network in which all EU Member States work togetherto solve without recourse to legal proceedings, problems caused by the misapplication of EUlaw by Member State authorities.

There is a SOLVIT center in every EU / EFTA Member State. Use of the SOLVIT network isfree.

Find your national SOLVIT center and learn more about the SOLVIT network(https://ec.europa.eu/solvit/index_en.htm).

National remedies

• The economic operator submits to the service issuing a decision restricting or prohibiting themovement of a product, a memorandum with its views, regarding the issued decision, basedon the provisions of article 6 of Law 2690/99 “Code of Administrative Procedure” and withinwithin eight (15) days from the date of receipt of the decision
• The economic operator can appeal to the Administrative Courts.