23.11.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities L 306/25 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 21 November 2001 on a Community financial contribution to cover expenditure incurred by Austria, Portugal and Finland for the purpose of combating organisms harmful to plants or plant products (notified under document number C(2001) 3684) (Only the German, Portuguese, Finnish and Swedish texts are authentic) (2001/811/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 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 prod- ucts and against their spread within the Community ('the Directive'), as amended by Commission Directive 2001/33/ EC () and in particular Article 23 thereof, Whereas: (1)  Pursuant to the Directive, a financial contribution from the Community may be granted to Member States to cover expenditure relating directly to the necessary measures which have been taken or are planned to be taken for the purpose of combating harmful organisms introduced from third countries or from other areas in the Community, in order to eradicate or, if that is not possible, to contain them. (2)  Austria, Portugal and Finland have applied for the alloca- tion of such a Community financial contribution within the time limit set out in the Directive. (3)  Austria, Portugal and Finland have each established a programme of actions to eradicate organisms harmful to plants introduced in their territories. These programmes specify the objectives to be achieved, the measures carried out, their duration and their cost so that the Community may contribute to financing it. () O] L 169, 10.7.2000, p. 1. () O] L 127, 9.5.2001, p. 42. (4) In derogation to the common practice of submitting eradication programmes dealing with actions taken during one or more years, for technical reasons, Portugal has submitted the programme Bursaphelenchus xylophilus related to actions implemented in the first 18 months of the eradication programme. The Community financial contribution may cover up to 50% of eligible expenditure. Excluding those programmes for which degression has to be applied, the Community financial contribution for the purposes of this Decision is set in general to 50 %, noting that the programmes received have been treated in equal way. An extension, of one, two or three years of the period in which eradication measures have to take place, as fore- seen in Article 23(5), third subparagraph of the Directive, has been granted to certain programmes as the examination of the situation has lead to the conclusion that the objective of the above eradication measures is likely to be achieved within that extended period. The Community financial contribution for the programmes, running for more than two years and covered by this Decision, has been degressive in partic- ular for the yearly average in the 4th, 5th and 6th year for Ralstonia and in the 3rd, 4th and 5th year for TSWV- TYLCV respectively, in Portugal. The expenditure which Austria, Portugal and Finland have incurred, and taken into account in this Decision, relates directly to the matters specified in Article 23(2)(a) and Article 23(2)(b) of the Directive.