1. An authorised operator which has received a trade unit of plants, plant products or other objects for which a plant passport has been issued, or the competent authority acting on request of a professional operator, may issue a new plant passport for that trade unit, replacing the plant passport initially issued for that trade unit, provided that the conditions of paragraph 3 are fulfilled.
2. Where a trade unit of plants, plant products or other objects for which a plant passport has been issued is divided into two or more new trade units, the authorised operator responsible for those new trade units, or the competent authority acting on request of a professional operator, shall issue a plant passport for each new trade unit resulting from the division, provided that the conditions set out in paragraph 3 are fulfilled. Those plant passports shall replace the plant passport issued for the initial trade unit.
3. A plant passport, as provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2, may only be issued if the following conditions are fulfilled:
(a)
the traceability requirements referred to in Article 69(3) concerning the plants, plant products or other objects concerned are fulfilled;
(b)
as applicable, the plants, plant products or other objects concerned continue to comply with the requirements referred to in Articles 85 and 86; and
(c)
the characteristics of the plants, plant products or other objects concerned have not changed.
4. Where a plant passport is issued pursuant to paragraph 1 or 2, the examination referred to in Article 87(1) shall not be required.
5. Following the replacement of a plant passport pursuant to paragraph 1 or 2, the authorised operator concerned shall retain the replaced plant passport or its content for at least three years.
Where the replacement of a plant passport pursuant to paragraph 1 or 2 is carried out by the competent authority, the professional operator on whose request it is issued shall retain the replaced plant passport or its content for at least three years.
That retainment may take the form of storage of the information contained in the plant passport in a computerised database, provided that this includes the information contained in any traceability barcode, hologram, chip or other data carrier which may supplement the traceability code as referred to in Annex VII.