98/432/EC: Commission Decision of 25 June 1998 authorising Member States temporarily to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of plants of strawberry (Fragaria L.), intended for planting, other than seeds, originating in the Republic of South Africa (notified under document number C(1998) 1751)
Date: 1998-06-25
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: South Africa, crop production, derogation from EU law, import policy, plant health legislation, soft fruit

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Official Journal of the European Communities

8. 7. 98

COMMISSION DECISION

of 25 June 1998

authorising Member States temporarily to provide for derogations from certain
provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of plants of strawberry
(Fragaria L.), intended for planting, other than seeds, originating in the Republic
of South Africa

(notified under document number C(1998) 1751)

(98/432/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Directive 77/93/EEC of 21
December 1976 on protective measures against the intro-
duction into the Community of organisms harmful to
plants or plant products and against their spread within
the Community (1), as last amended by Commission
Directive 98/2/EC (2), and in particular Article 14(1)
thereof,

Having regard to the request made by the United
Kingdom,

Whereas, under the provisions of Directive 77/93/EEC,
plants of strawberry (Fragaria L.) intended for planting,
other than seeds, originating in non-European countries,
other
than Mediterranean countries, Australia, New
Zealand, Canada and the continental States of the United
States of America, may in principle not be introduced
into the Community;

Whereas, there is interest in the growing, in the Republic
of South Africa, of plants of Fragaria L., intended for
planting, other than seeds, from plants supplied by a
Member State, in order to prolongate the growing season
of the plants; whereas these plants could afterwards be
re-exported to the Community in order to have them
planted for the production of fruit;

in respect of

the said imports

Whereas,
into the
Community of the said plants, on the basis of the infor-
mation supplied by the relevant Member State,
it
appeared that the said strawberry plants could be grown
under adequate health conditions in the Elliot district of
the North Eastern Cape region, Republic of South Africa
and whereas, on the basis of the information supplied and
under such circumstances there appeared to be no risk of
spreading harmful organisms affecting plants of Fragaria
L., provided that certain special technical conditions were
satisfied; whereas, therefore by Decision 97/488/EC (3) the
Commission authorised derogations under special tech-
strawberry
nical conditions

in respect of plants of

(1) OJ L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20.
(2) OJ L 15, 21. 1. 1998, p. 34.
(3) OJ L 208, 2. 8. 1997, p. 49.

(Fragaria L.)
originating in the Republic of South Africa;

intended for planting, other than seeds,

Whereas there have been no confirmed findings of
harmful organisms
in official examinations on the
imports pursuant to the said Decision;

Whereas also the Commission shall ensure that
the
Republic of South Africa continues to make available all
information necessary to assess the phyto-
technical
sanitary status of strawberry plant production in the
Republic of South Africa;

Whereas the circumstances justifying the authorisation
still obtain;

Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision are in
accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee
on Plant Health,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

1. Member States are hereby authorised to provide,
under the conditions laid down in paragraph 2, for a
derogation from Article 4(1) of Directive 77/93/EEC, with
regard to the requirements referred to in Annex III(A)(18)
for plants of
intended for
strawberry (Fragaria L.),
planting, other than seeds, originating in the Republic of
South Africa.

2.
In addition to the requirements laid down in Part A
of the Annexes I, II and IV to Directive 77/93/EEC, in
relation to plants of strawberry, the following specific
conditions shall be satisfied:

(a)

the plants shall be intended for fruit production
within the Community and shall have been:

(i) produced exclusively from mother plants, certi-
fied under an approved certification scheme of a
Member State and those mother plants shall have
been imported from a Member State;

(ii) grown on land which is:

(cid:190) situated in the Elliot district of the North

Eastern Cape Region,

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(cid:190) situated in an area isolated from commercial

strawberry production,

(cid:190) situated at

least one kilometre from the
nearest crop of strawberry plants for fruit or
runner production which do not satisfy the
conditions of this Decision,

(cid:190) situated at least 200 metres from any other
plants of the genus Fragaria which do not
satisfy the conditions of this Decision, and

(cid:190) prior to planting and in the period after the
previous crop was removed from the land,
tested by appropriate methods or treated to
ensure freedom from soil infesting harmful
organisms,
including Globodera pallida
(Stone) Behrens and Globodera rostochiensis
(Wollenweber) Behrens and;

(iii) officially inspected by the Plant Protection
Service of the Republic of South Africa, at least
three times during the growing season and prior
to export for the presence of both harmful organ-
isms listed in Part A of Annexes I and II to
Directive 77/93/EEC, in particular,

(cid:190) Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie,

(cid:190) Arabis mosaic virus,

(cid:190) Colletotrichum acutatum Simmonds,

(cid:190) Globodera pallida (Stone) Behrens,

(cid:190) Globodera
Behrens,

rostochiensis

(Wollenweber)

(cid:190) Strawberry crinkle virus,

in point (a)(iii), as well as to the requirements speci-
fied in points (a)(i),

(iv) and (v).

(ii),

The certificate shall state:

(cid:190) under the rubric ‘Disinfestation and/or disinfec-
tion treatment', the specification of the last treat-
ment(s) applied prior to export,

(cid:190) under

‘Additional Declaration',

the indication
‘This consignment meets
laid
down in Decision 98/432/EC', as well as the name
of the variety and the Member State certification
scheme under which the mother plants had been
certified;

the conditions

(c)

the plants shall be introduced through points of entry
situated within the territory of a Member State and
designated for the purpose of this derogation by that
Member State;

(d) prior

the
to introduction into the Community,
importer shall notify each introduction sufficiently in
advance to the responsible official bodies in the
Member State of introduction and that Member State,
without delay, shall convey the details of the notifica-
tion to the Commission, indicating:

(cid:190) the type of material,

(cid:190) the quantity,

(cid:190) the declared date of introduction and confirma-

(cid:190) Strawberry mild yellow edge virus,

tion of the point of entry,

(cid:190) Xiphinema americanum Cobb sensu lato

(non-European populations),

and the following harmful organisms which are
not known to occur in the Community:

(cid:190) Eremnus setulosus (Boheman),

(cid:190) Graphognathus leucoloma (Boheman),

(cid:190) Heteronychus arator (Fabricius);

(iv) found free, in the inspections referred to in point
(iii) from the harmful organisms referred to in
point (iii);

(e)

(v) prior to export:

(cid:190) shaken free from soil or other growing

medium,

(cid:190) cleaned (i. e. free from plant debris) and free

from flowers and fruits;

(b)

the plants intended for the Community shall be
accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued in
the Republic of South Africa in accordance with
Articles 7 and 12 of Directive 77/93/EEC, on the
basis of the examination laid down therein, in partic-
ular freedom from the harmful organisms mentioned

(cid:190) the names and addresses of the premises referred
to in point (f) where the plants will be planted.

At the time of import the importer shall provide
the aforementioned
confirmation of
advance notification.

the details of

The importer shall be officially informed, prior to the
introduction, of the conditions laid down in points (a),
(b),

(f) and (g);

(d),

(c),

(e),

referred to in the said Directive, of

including testing, as appropriate,
the inspections
required pursuant
to Article 12 of Directive 77/
93/EEC shall be made by the responsible official
bodies,
the
Member States making use of this derogation, and
where appropriate,
in cooperation with the said
bodies of the Member State in which the plants will
be planted. Without prejudice to the monitoring
referred to in Article 19a(3), second indent, first pos-
sibility,
the Commission shall determine to what
extent the inspections referred to in Article 19a(3),
second indent, second possibility of the said Direc-
tive,
inspection
programme in accordance with Article 19a(5)(c) of
that Directive;

integrated

shall

into

the

be

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8. 7. 98

(f)

(g)

(h)

the plants shall be planted only at premises officially
registered and approved for the purposes of
this
derogation and of which the name of the owner and
address of the site have been notified in advance by
the person who intends to plant the plants imported
pursuant to this Decision, to the said responsible offi-
cial bodies of the Member State in which the prem-
ises are situated; in those cases where the place of
planting is situated in a Member State other than the
Member State making use of this derogation, the said
responsible official bodies of
the Member State
making use of this derogation, at the moment of
receipt of the aforementioned advance notification
from the importer, shall inform the said responsible
official bodies of the Member State in which the
plants will be planted giving the name and addresses
of the premises where the plants will be planted;
the said responsible official bodies shall ensure that
any plant not planted in accordance with point (f)
shall be officially destroyed. Records shall be kept
available to the Commission on the numer of offi-
cially destroyed plants;
in the growing period following importation, a suit-
able proportion of the plants shall be inspected by the
said responsible official bodies of the Member State in
which the plants are planted, at appropriate times, at
the premises referred to in point (f).

Article 2
Member States shall inform the other Member States and
the Commission by means of the notification referred to
in Article 1(2)(d), of any use made of the authorisation.

They shall provide the Commission and the other
Member States, before 1 November 1998, with the infor-
mation on amounts imported pursuant to this Decision
and with a detailed technical report of the official exam-
ination referred to in Article 1(2)(e). Furthermore all
Member States in which the plants are planted shall also
provide the Commission and the other Member States,
before 1 March after the year of importation, with a
detailed technical
the official examination
report of
referred to in Article 1(2)(h).

Article 3

The authorisation granted in Article 1 shall apply during
the period between 1 July and 15 July 1998. It shall be
revoked if it is established that the conditions laid down
in Article 1(2) are not sufficient to prevent the introduc-
tion of harmful organisms or have not been complied
with.

Article 4

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 25 June 1998.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission