13. 3. 98 Official Journal of the European Communities L 76/39 COMMISSION DECISION of 4 March 1998 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 Hungary or Romania (98/201/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 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 ('), as last amended by Commission Directive 98/2/EC (%), and in particular Article 14(1) thereof, Having regard to the request made by Austria, in respect of plants of Viris L. other than fruits, originating in Hungary or Romania, 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 the use of propagating material of Vitis L. imported from Hungary or Romania had become an es- tablished practice before Austria’s accession to the Com- munity; whereas this propagating material was intended to be used to produce grafted material in Austria; Whereas, in respect of the said imports into the Com- munity of the said plants, on the basis of information supplied by the relevant Member State, it appears that in Hungary or Romania, plants of Vitis L. can be grown under adequate health conditions and that there are no sources for the introduction of exotic diseases affecting plants of Vitis L, 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 (°), as last amended by the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and any implementing measures made thereunder; () OJ L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20. () OJ L 15, 21. 1. 1998, p. 34. () O L 93, 17. 4. 1968, p. 15. Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plant Health, HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 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 Hungary or Romania. 2. The following specific conditions shall be satisfied: (a) the plants shall be propagating material in the form of unrooted cuttings (hereinafter referred to as ‘cuttings’) of the following rootstock varieties: — Vitis berlandieri x Vitis riparia, selection Kober SBB, — Vitis berlandieri x Vitis riparia 5C; G5 the cuttings shall be intended to be used in the Community at premises referred to in (h), as root- stocks for grafting in order to produce grafted plants in the Community; (c) the cuttings intended for the Community shall be: — harvested from stock plantation material grown in vineyards, which are officially registered. The lists of the registered vineyards shall be made available to the Member States making use of the derogation and to the Commission, at the latest by 1 February 1998. These lists shall include the name(s) of the rootstock varieties, the number of rows planted with these varieties, the number of plants per row for each of these vineyards, as far as they are deemed suitable for dispatch to the Community in 1998, under the conditions laid down in this De- cision, — 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 Hungary or Romania in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 77/93/EEC, on the basis of the