Experience in applying the Directive has indicated an urgent need to allow more flexibility in the practical aspects of carrying out the surveys. This need has been seized as an opportunity to redraft the Directive in a form which would be simpler and clearer to understand and implement than an old text several times amended. This flexibility will allow Member States to select the most suitable time for the survey. It is therefore advisable to carry out surveys concurrently in all the Member States on plantations of fruit trees of the same species in accordance with the same criteria and with comparable accuracy.
New plantations attain their full yield only after a certain number of years.
Member States shall carry out on 1 January 2002, and in every fifth year thereafter, surveys on plantations of certain species of fruit trees existing on their territory. The species to be surveyed in the various Member States are stated in the appended table. The survey of plantations of varieties of apples and pears destined solely for uses other than dessert apples and pears shall be optional. The survey shall apply to all holdings with an area planted with fruit trees, provided that the fruit produced is entirely or mainly intended for sale. The survey shall cover pure and mixed crops, that is to say plantations of fruit trees of several of the species referred to in paragraph 2 or of one or more of them together with other species.