Based on Information Note No. 1 contained in document TAXUD/2109264/20 of 31.03.2020, the Commission recommended that the customs authorities of the MS accept certificates of movement of goods for the purposes of preferential origin issued by electronic means with a digital signature or seal from the competent authorities, or a copy in paper or electronic format, given the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This flexibility ended on May 1, 2024, and from that moment on, certificates of origin issued electronically by third countries are no longer accepted.
However, within the framework of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, the revision of which will enter into force in January 2025, and based on Recommendation No. 1/2023 of the Joint Committee of the Regional Convention on Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Preferential Rules of Origin of December 7, 2023 regarding To the use of certificates of movement of goods issued by electronic means, the Contracting Parties to the Convention recommend the acceptance of certificates of movement of goods issued by electronic means within the framework of the Convention when presented at the time of importation and on the basis to the flexibility provided for in article 24 of appendix I thereof, provided that the following conditions are met:

• certificates of movement of goods issued by electronic means have a format similar to the models described in Annexes III a and III b of Appendix I to the Convention
• the customs authorities of the exporting Contracting Party have a secure online system to verify the authenticity of movement certificates issued by electronic means when the printing instructions described in Annexes III a and III b (e.g. example, absence of green guilloche background printing, wet ink seal, handwritten signature)
• Certificates of movement of goods issued by electronic means carry a unique serial number and, if available, security elements that allow their identification.
• the date from which a Contracting Party begins the issuance of electronic movement certificates is specified in the notices published in the Official Journal of the European Union (accumulation matrix published periodically in the OJEU series C) and in accordance with the contracting parties' own procedures.

In this way, as of May 1, 2024, code 9020 can be declared in box 44 of the DUA of importation only when the proof of preferential origin presented has been issued by electronic means by customs authorities, for the moment, of Morocco, Turkey, Israel and Norway.