1999/166/EC: Commission Decision of 19 February 1999 authorising the Member States temporarily 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 Switzerland (notified under document number C(1999) 386)
Date: 1999-02-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Switzerland, derogation from EU law, health certificate, plant health legislation, plant propagation, vineyard

L 55/16

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

3. 3. 1999

COMMISSION DECISION

of 19 February 1999

authorising the Member States temporarily 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 Switzerland

(notified under document number C(1999) 386)

(1999/166/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 Commission
Directive 98/2/EC (2), and in particular Article 14(1)
thereof,

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 Switzerland.

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

In addition to the requirements

2.
laid down in
Annexes I and II of Directive 77/93/EEC in relation to
plants of Vitis L., the following specific conditions shall
be satisfied:

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 Decision 97/159/EC (3)
the Commission
authorised Member States to provide for derogations in
respect of plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating
in Switzerland under specified conditions in the 1997
season;

Whereas due to technical reasons there were no imports
made under Decision 97//159/EC;

Whereas the circumstances justifying the authorisation for
Switzerland 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 (4), 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 62, 4. 3. 1997, p. 36.
(4) OJ L 93, 17. 4. 1968, p. 15.

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

— Chasselat blanc,

— Gamaret,

— Humagne,

— Diolinoir,

— Petite Arvine,

— Amigne,

— Cornalin,

— Granoir;

(b) the buds shall be intended to be grafted in the
Community, at premises referred to in (h), on to 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

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

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

— Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch),

— Xylophilus ampelinus (Panagopoulos) Willems

et al.,

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

The certificate shall state under ‘Additional declar-
ation', the indication ‘This consignment meets the
conditions laid down in Decision 1999/166/EC';

(d) the official plant protection organisation of Switzer-
land shall ensure the identity of the buds from the
time of harvesting as referred to in (c), first indent,
until
to the
Community;

loading for

time of

export

the

(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 the Member State introduction shall inform
and cooperate with the said responsible official bodies
of the Member States making use of this derogation to
this Decision are
ensure that
complied with;

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 type of material,

— the variety and the quantity,

— 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
the
to 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

these 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 re-
sponsible official bodies,
referred to in the said
the plant health
Directive; of
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 organ-
isms. Without prejudice 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 integrated into the inspection
programme in accordance with Article 19a(5)(c) of
that Directive;

(h) the buds shall be grafted on to 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 this derogation, the said respon-
sible official bodies of the Member State making use of
this derogation, at the moment of receipt of the afore-
mentioned advance notification from the importer,
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;

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3. 3. 1999

(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
previous indents,
from the harmful organisms
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

report of

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
the official examination
detailed technical
referred to in Article 1(2)(j). Furthermore, any other
Member State in which the buds are grafted on to 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
detailed technical
the official examination
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 1 March
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 introduc-
tion of harmful organisms or have not been complied
with.

Article 5

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 19 February 1999.

For the Commission

Franz FISCHLER

Member of the Commission