2001/836/EC: Commission Decision of 27 November 2001 authorising the Member States temporarily to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 2000/29/EC in respect of plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in Switzerland (notified under document number C(2001) 3764)
Date: 2001-11-27
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Switzerland, derogation from EU law, parasitology, plant disease, plant health control, plant health legislation

29.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 312/27

COMMISSION DECISION

of 27 November 2001

authorising the Member States temporarily to provide for derogations from certain provisions of
Council Directive 2000/29/EC in respect of plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in
Switzerland

(notified under document number C(2001) 3764)

(2001/836/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 2000/29/EC of 8 May 2000
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 2001/33/EC (2), and in
particular Article 15(1) thereof,

Having regard to the request made by France,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Under the provisions of Directive 2000/29/EC, plants of
Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in third countries
may in principle not be introduced into the Community.

Commission Decisions 97/159/EC (3), 1999/166/EC (4),
2000/189/EC (5) and 2001/5/EC (6), authorised Member
States to provide for derogations from certain provisions
of Directive 2000/29/EC in respect of plants of Vitis L.,
other than fruits, originating in Switzerland provided
that specific conditions are satisfied.

The circumstances justifying the authorisation are still
valid. There is no new information giving cause for
revision of the specific conditions.

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 (7), 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 169, 10.7.2000, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 127, 9.5.2001, p. 42.
(3) OJ L 62, 4.3.1997, p. 36.
(4) OJ L 55, 3.3.1999, p. 16.
(5) OJ L 59, 4.3.2000, p. 18.
(6) OJ L 2, 5.1.2001, p. 22.
(7) 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 exceptions
from Article 4(1) of Directive 2000/29/EC, with regard to the
prohibitions referred to in Part A(15) of Annex III thereto for
plants of Vitis L., other than fruits, originating in Switzerland.

2.
In addition to the requirements laid down in Annexes I
and II to Directive 2000/29/EC 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:

— Chasselas blanc,

— Gamaret noir,

— Humagne noir,

— Diolinoir,

— Petite Arvine,

— Amigne,

— Cornalin,

— Garanoir;

(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;

(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
January 2002. 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 2002, 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,

L 312/28

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

29.11.2001

— accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued in
Switzerland in accordance with Articles 7 and 13 of
Directive 2000/29/EC, 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 2001/836/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 2000/
29/EC 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 of 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 his 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 13 of Directive 2000/29/EC and in
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. Sub-samples shall be kept
available for subsequent examination by other Member
States. Without prejudice to the monitoring referred to in
Article 21(3), second indent, first possibility of the said
Directive, the Commission shall determine to which extent
the inspections referred to in Article 21(3), second indent,
second possibility, of the said Directive shall be integrated
into the inspection programme in accordance with Article
21(5) 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,

29.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 312/29

— 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;

(k) any grafted plant resulting from a successful grafting using
the buds referred to in (a) shall be only released as grafted
plants in 2003 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
2002, 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)(g) and (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 2002, with a detailed

technical report, of
Article 1(2)(j).

the official examination referred to in

Article 3

Without prejudice to the provisions laid down in Article 15(3)
of Directive 2000/29/EC, the Member States concerned shall
notify the Commission and the other Member States of all
cases of consignments introduced pursuant to this Decision
which were subsequently found not to comply with the condi-
tions laid down herein.

Article 4

Article 1 shall apply during the period between 15 January
2002 and 15 March 2002. 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, 27 November 2001.

For the Commission

David BYRNE

Member of the Commission