1999/158/EC: Commission Decision of 16 February 1999 authorising the Member States exceptionally to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in Croatia (notified under document number C(1999) 328)
Date: 1999-02-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Croatia, crop production, derogation from EU law, import, plant health control, plant health legislation

27. 2. 1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 52/55

COMMISSION DECISION

of 16 February 1999

authorising the Member States exceptionally to provide for derogations from
certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of plants of Vitis L.,
other than fruits, originating in Croatia

(notified under document number C(1999) 328)

(1999/158/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

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 Directive 98/2/
EC (2), and in particular Article 14(1) thereof,

Having regard to the request made by Italy, in respect of
plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in Croatia,

Whereas, under the provisions of Directive 77/93/EEC,
plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in third
countries, may in principle not be introduced into the
Community;

Whereas by Decisions 97/78/EC (3) and 98/86/EC (4) the
Commission authorised Member States to provide for
derogations in respect of plants of Vitis L., other than
fruits, originating in Croatia under specified conditions in
the 1997 and 1998 seasons;

Whereas there have been no confirmed findings of
harmful organisms during the inspections on the plants
introduced pursuant to Decision 98/86/EC;

Whereas the circumstances justifying the authorisation for
Croatia still obtain;

Whereas therefore a derogation should be authorised for a
limited period, provided that it includes specific condi-
tions and without prejudice to Council Directive 68/
193/EEC (5), as last amended by the Act of Accession of
Austria, Finland and Sweden, and any implementing
measures made thereunder;

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

(1) OJ L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20.
(2) OJ L 15, 21. 1. 1998, p. 34.
(3) OJ L 22, 24. 1. 1997, p. 35.
(4) OJ L 17, 22. 1. 1998, p. 25.
(5) OJ L 93, 17. 4. 1968, p. 15.

Article 1

1.
The Member States are hereby authorised to provide,
under the conditions laid down in paragraph 2, for excep-
tions from Article 4(1) of Directive 77/93/EEC, with
regard to the prohibitions referred to in Part A, point 15
of Annex III thereto for plants of Vitis L., other than
fruits, originating in Croatia.

In addition to the requirements laid down in Annex
2.
I and II of Directive 77/93/EEC in relation to plants of
Vitis L., the following specific conditions shall be satis-
fied:

(a) the plants shall be propagating material in the form of
dormant bud material of the following varieties:

— Babic,

— Plavac Mali,

— Plavina,

— Debit,

— Kuc,

— Marastina;

(b) the buds shall be intended to be grafted in the
Community at premises referred to in (h), onto root-
stocks produced in the Community;

(c) the buds intended for the Community shall be:

— harvested in stock nurseries, which are officially
registered. The lists of
the registered nurseries
shall be made available to the Member States
making use of the derogation and to the Commis-
sion, at the latest by 15 February 1999. These lists
shall
the
number of rows planted with these varieties, the
these
number of plants per
nurseries, as far as they are deemed suitable for
dispatch to the Community in 1999, under the
conditions laid down in this Decision,

include the name(s) of

row for each of

the varieties,

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Official Journal of the European Communities

27. 2. 1999

— properly packed and the packaging made recog-
nisable with a marking, enabling the identification
of the registered nursery and the variety,

— the type of material,

— the variety and the quantity,

— accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued
in Croatia in accordance with Article 7 and 12 of
Directive 77/93/EEC, on the basis of the exam-
ination laid down therein, in particular freedom
from the following harmful organisms:

— Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch),

— Xylophilus ampelinus

(Panagopoulos) Wil-

lems et al.,

— Grapevine Flavescence dor(cid:130)e MLO,

— Xylella fastidiosa (Well et Raju),

— Trechispora brinkmannii

(Bresad.) Rogers,

— Tobacco ringspot virus,

— Tomato ringspot virus,

— Blueberry leaf mottle virus,

— Peach rosette mosaic virus.

The certificate shall state under ‘Additional De-
claration', the indication ‘This consignment meets
the conditions
laid down in Decision 1999/
158/EC';

(d) the official plant protection organisation of Croatia
shall ensure the identity of the buds from the time of
harvesting as referred to in (c), first indent, until the
time of loading for export to the Community;

(e) the buds 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; these points of entry and the name and
address of the responsible official body referred to in
Directive 77/93/EEC in charge of each point shall be
notified sufficiently in advance by the Member States
to the Commission and shall be held available on
request to other Member States. In those cases where
the introduction into the Community takes place in a
Member State other than the Member State making
use of this derogation, the said responsible official
bodies of
introduction shall
inform and cooperate with the said responsible offi-
cial bodies of the Member States making use of this
derogation to ensure that
this
Decision are complied with;

the Member State of

the provisions of

(f) prior

to introduction into the Community,
the
importer shall be officially informed of the conditions
laid down in (a) to (k); the said importer shall notify
details of 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 notification to the
Commission, indicating:

— the declared date of introduction and confirmation

of the point of entry,

— the names, addresses and the locations of

the
premises referred to in (h) where the buds will be
grafted and/or where the grafted plants will sub-
sequently be planted.

aforementioned advance notification,

The importer shall provide details of any changes to
to the
the
responsible official bodies of their own Member State,
preferably as soon as they are known and in any case
prior to the time of import, and that Member State,
without delay, shall convey the details of the changes
to the Commission;

(g) the inspections

including testing, as appropriate,
required pursuant
to Article 12 of Directive 77/
93/EEC and in accordance with provisions laid down
in the present Decision shall be made by the respons-
ible official bodies, referred to in the said Directive; of
these inspections, the plant health checks shall be
carried out by the Member State making use of this
derogation and where appropriate, in cooperation with
the said bodies of the Member State in which the
buds will be grafted. Furthermore during the said
plant health check that Member State(s) shall also
inspect for all other harmful organisms. Without pre-
judice to the monitoring referred to in Article 19a(3)
second indent, first possibility of the said Directive,
the Commission shall determine to which extent the
inspections referred to in Article 19a(3) second indent,
second possibility of the said Directive shall be in-
tegrated into the inspection programme in accordance
with Article 19a(5)(c) of that Directive;

(h) the buds shall be grafted onto rootstocks and the
grafted plants subsequently planted, only at premises

— for which the names, addresses and the locations
have been notified by the person who intends to
use the buds imported pursuant to this Decision,
to the said responsible official bodies of
the
Member State in which the premises are situated,

and

— officially registered and approved for the purposes

of this derogation.

In those cases where the place of grafting or planting
is situated in a Member State other than the Member
State making use of
the said re-
sponsible official bodies of the Member State making
use of this derogation, at the moment of receipt of the
aforementioned
from the
importer,

this derogation,

notification

advance

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Official Journal of the European Communities

L 52/57

shall inform the said responsible official bodies of the
Member State in which the buds will be grafted or
planted giving the names, addresses and the locations
of the premises where the plants will be grafted or
planted;

(i) the said responsible official bodies shall ensure that
any bud not used in accordance with (h) shall be
destroyed under the control of the said responsible
official bodies. Records shall be kept available to the
Commission on the numbers of plants destroyed;

(j) at the premises referred to in (h):

— the material which has been found free from the
harmful organisms referred to in (g) may then be
used for grafting and the grafted plants shall be
planted and grown in fields belonging to the
premises referred to in (h) and shall remain on the
premises, until they are moved to a destination
outside the Community as referred to in (k),
— the grafted plants shall be, in the growing period
following importation, visually inspected by the
said responsible official bodies of
the Member
State in which the grafted plants are planted, at
appropriate times, for the presence of any harmful
organism or for signs or symptoms caused by any
harmful organism including those of Daktulos-
phaira vitifoliae (Fitch); as a result of such visual
inspection any harmful organism having caused
such signs or symptoms shall be identified by an
appropriate testing procedure,

— any plant which has not been found free during
the said inspections or testing, referred to in the
from the harmful organisms
previous indents,
listed under (c) third indent, or otherwise of quar-
antine concern, shall be immediately destroyed
under control of the said responsible bodies;

(k) any grafted plant resulting from a successful grafting
using the buds referred to in (a) shall be only released
as grafted plants in 2000 to a destination outside the
Community. The said responsible official bodies shall
ensure that any plant not so moved shall be officially
destroyed. Records shall be kept available to the
Commission on the amounts of successfully grafted
plants, of officially destroyed plants and of plants sold
as well as on the country of destination of the plants
sold.

Article 2

Member States shall inform the other Member States and
the Commission by means of the notification referred to
in Article 1(2)(f), of any use of the authorisation. They
shall provide the Commission and the other Member
States, before 1 November 1999, with the information on
amounts imported pursuant to this Decision and with a
detailed technical
the official examination
referred to in Article 1(2)(j). Furthermore any other
Member State in which the buds are grafted onto root-
stocks and in which the grafted plants are planted, after
the import, shall also provide the Commission and the
other Member States, before 1 November 1999, with a
the official examination
report of
detailed technical
referred to in Article 1(2)(j).

report of

Article 3

Without prejudice to the provisions laid down in Article
14(3) of Directive 77/93/EEC,
the Member States
concerned shall notify the Commission and the other
Member States of all cases of consignments introduced
pursuant to this Decision which do not comply with the
conditions laid down herein.

Article 4

Article 1 shall apply during the period between 20
February 1999 and 30 March 1999. The present Decision
shall be revoked if it is established that the conditions laid
down in Article 1(2) are not sufficient to prevent the
introduction of harmful organisms or have not been
complied with.

Article 5

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 16 February 1999.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission