Article 9 Independence and accreditation or authorisation of verifiers

1.   Verifiers shall be independent from the operators, undertakings, mine operators and importers and shall carry out verification activities under this Regulation in the public interest. For that purpose, neither the verifier nor any part of the same legal entity shall be an operator, undertaking, mine operator or importer, or own an operator, undertaking, mine operator or importer, or be owned by an operator, undertaking, mine operator or importer.

Verifiers shall not have relations with operators, undertakings, mine operators or importers that could affect their independence and impartiality.

2.   Verifiers that are legal persons shall be accredited by a national accreditation body pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 765/2008.

Where no specific provisions concerning the accreditation of verifiers are laid down in this Regulation, Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 shall apply.

3.   Member States may decide to authorise natural persons to be verifiers for the purposes of this Regulation. Those verifiers shall be authorised by a national authority that is different from the national accreditation body appointed pursuant to Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008.

4.   Where a Member State decides to apply paragraph 3, it shall ensure that the relevant national authority complies with this Regulation and provides the Commission and the other Member States with all the documentary evidence necessary for the verification of the competence of the verifiers authorised under that paragraph.