It is prohibited to send plants in shipments without the appropriate phytosanitary documents.
Phytosanitary certificate
The phytosanitary certificate must be attached, if the plants are received from third countries. When sending plants to third countries, the requirements of the respective country must be taken into account. A phytosanitary certificate is issued only after the requirements established by the plant quarantine regulations have been met (for example, appropriate inspections have been carried out, and samples removed).
Plant passport
The plant passport must be attached if the plants are sent or received to/from other EU and Switzerland. It is a label-type document affixed to plants or their packaging that certifies the plants have been inspected and comply with phytosanitary requirements.
The definition of “Plants” includes living plants and their parts:
- Seeds, except those not intended for planting;
- Fruits in the botanical sense;
- Vegetables;
- Tubers, bulbs, bulbils, rhizomes, roots, rootstocks, and stolons;
- Shoots, trunks, stems and vines;
- Cut flowers;
- branches with or without leaves;
- Felled trees with foliage;
- Plant tissue cultures, including cell cultures, genetic material, meristems, chimeric clones, and material propagated by micropropagation;.
- Living pollen and spores.