From January 1, 2009 all certification organisations or control bodies with activities outside of the EU member states which certify organic products entering the EU are required to demonstrate that they operate a compliant or equivalent control system to that required within Europe.

The IOAS offers three options to assist certification bodies to comply with the regulation EC 834/2007 of June 2007 as follows:

• Option 1: Accreditation against ISO65 and full compliance with regulation (EC) 834/2007 (Article 32 of 834/2007)

• Option 2: Accreditation against ISO65 with a separate equivalence assessment of standards (Article 33 of 834/2007)

• Option 3: Assessment of equivalence against both ISO65 and standards (Article 33 of 834/2007)

Option 1 can be considered under IOAS accreditation against ISO/IEC 65.

Options 2 and 3 require entry into both the ISO Guide 65 programme and the EU Recognition Programme because two assessments are involved; both options require assessment of equivalence against (EC)834/2007 and associated implementing rules. In addition option 2 requires full compliance with ISO Guide 65 whereas option 3 offers some flexibility requiring only equivalence.

A guidance document 'Guidelines on imports of organic products into the European Union' was published by the Commission in December 2008 and contains important information on the application process to the European Commission.