98/661/EC: Commission Decision of 16 November 1998 amending Commission Decision 93/467/EEC authorising Member States to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC, in respect of oak (Quercus L.) logs with bark attached, originating in Canada or the United States of America (notified under document number C(1998) 3503)
Date: 1998-11-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Canada, United States, plant disease, plant health control, plant health legislation, wood product

L 314/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

24. 11. 98

COMMISSION DECISION

of 16 November 1998

amending Commission Decision 93/467/EEC authorising Member States to
provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC,
in respect of oak (Quercus L.) logs with bark attached, originating in Canada or
the United States of America

(notified under document number C(1998) 3503)

(98/661/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 requests made by Belgium,
Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxem-
bourg and Portugal,

Whereas, pursuant
to the provisions of Directive 77/
93/EEC, oak (Quercus L.) logs with bark attached, origin-
ating in North American countries, may, in principle, not
be introduced into the Community because of the risk of
introducing Ceratocystis fagacearum (Bretz) Hunt., the
cause of oak wilt;

Whereas Commission Decision 93/467/EEC (3), as last
amended by Decision 96/724/EC (4) permits derogations
for oak (Quercus L.) logs with bark attached originating in
Canada and the United States of America provided that
special conditions are satisfied;

Whereas Decision 93/467/EEC as amended stipulated
that the authorisation shall expire on 31 December 1998;

Whereas, on the basis of the information available at
present, the conditions for the derogation in the afore-
mentioned Decision should be maintained;

Whereas the circumstances justifying the authorisation
still obtain;

Whereas the authorisation should therefore be extended
for a further limited period;

Whereas the Commission will ensure that Canada and
the United States of America make all technical informa-
tion available which is necessary to continue to monitor
the functioning of the protective measures required under
the aforementioned technical conditions;

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

Decision 93/467/EEC is hereby amended as follows:

1. In Article 1(2)(b), ‘— Vigo' is added after ‘— Valencia'.

2. In Article 3,

‘31 December 1998' is replaced by ‘31

December 2000'.

3. In Annex I, part 7,

‘96/724/EC' is replaced by ‘98/

661/EC'.

Article 2

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 16 November 1998.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20.
(2) OJ L 15, 21. 1. 1998, p. 34.
(3) OJ L 217, 27. 8. 1993, p. 49.
(4) OJ L 329, 19. 12. 1996, p. 47.