2000/189/EC: Commission Decision of 24 February 2000 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(2000) 397)
Date: 2000-02-24
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: crop production, import, parasitology, plant health control, plant health legislation, protection of plant life

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Official Journal of the European Communities

4.3.2000

COMMISSION DECISION

of 24 February 2000

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(2000) 397)

(2000/189/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 introduction into the
Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products
their spread within the Community (1), as last
and against
amended by Commission Directive 1999/53/EC (2), and in
particular Article 14(1) thereof,

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

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.

the
By Decisions 97/159/EC (3) and 1999/166/EC (4)
Commission authorised Member States to provide for
derogations in respect of plants of Vitis L., other than
fruits, originating in Switzerland under specified condi-
tions in the 1997 and 1999 seasons.

Due to technical reasons there were no imports made
under Decisions 97/159/EC and 1999/166/EC.

Article 1

1.
The Member States are hereby authorised to provide,
under the conditions laid down in paragraph 2, for exceptions
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 Switzer-
land.

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

(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;

The circumstances justifying the authorisation for Swit-
zerland still obtain.

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

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.

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 142, 5.6.1999, p. 29.
(3) OJ L 62, 4.3.1997, p. 36.
(4) OJ L 55, 3.3.1999, p. 16.
(5) OJ L 93, 17.4.1968, p. 15.

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

— harvested in stock nurseries, which are officially regis-
tered. The lists of the registered nurseries shall be made
available to the Member States making use of
the
derogation and to the Commission, at the latest by 15
February 2000. These lists shall include the name(s) of
the varieties, the number of rows planted with these
varieties, the number of plants per row for each of
these nurseries, as far as they are deemed suitable for
dispatch to the Community in 2000, under the condi-
tions laid down in this Decision,

— properly packed and the packaging made recognisable
with a marking, enabling the identification of the regis-
tered nursery and the variety,

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

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— 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 dorée MLO.

The certificate shall state under ‘Additional declaration’, the
indication ‘This consignment meets the conditions laid
down in Decision 2000/189/EC’;

(d) the official plant protection organisation of Switzerland
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 situ-
ated 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 ensure that
the provisions of this Decision are complied with;

(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 offi-
cial 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 subsequently be planted.

The importer shall provide details of any changes to the
aforementioned advance notification,
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 including testing, as appropriate, required
to Article 12 of Directive 77/93/EEC and in
pursuant
accordance with provisions laid down in the present
Decision shall be made by the responsible 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 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 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 respon-
sible 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 Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch); as a
result of such visual inspection any harmful organism
having caused such signs or symptoms shall be identi-
fied 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 quarantine concern, shall
be immediately destroyed under control of the said
responsible bodies;

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(k) any grafted plant resulting from a successful grafting using
the buds referred to in (a) shall be only released as grafted
plants in 2001 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
2000, with the information on amounts imported pursuant to
this Decision and with a detailed technical report of the official
examination referred to in Article 1(2) (j). Furthermore, any
other Member State in which the buds are grafted on to
rootstocks and in which the grafted plants are planted, after the
import, shall also provide the Commission and the other
Member States, before 1 November 2000, with a detailed
the official examination referred to in
technical report, of
Article 1(2) (j).

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 2000
and 15 March 2000. 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.

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Article 5

Done at Brussels, 24 February 2000.

For the Commission

David BYRNE

Member of the Commission