No L 77/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 19. 3. 97 COMMISSION DECISION of 14 March 1997 authorizing the Member States to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of potatoes, other than potatoes intended for planting, originating in Cuba (97/186/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Directive 77/93/BEC 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 Directive 97/3/EC (3, and in particular Article 14 (1) thereof, Having regard to the request made by the Netherlands, Whereas, under the provisions of Directive 77/93/EEC, potato tubers other than those officially certified as seed potatoes pursuant to other Community provisions, originating in Cuba may in principle not be introduced into the Community because of the risk of introducing exotic potato diseases unknown in the Community; Whereas the early growing in Cuba of potatoes, other than potatoes intended for planting from seed potatoes supplied by Member States has become an established practice; whereas part of the early supply of potatoes in the Community has been ensured by imports of such material from Cuba; Whereas by Decisions 87/306/EEC (), 88/223/EEC (%), 89/152/EEC (), 91/593/EEC (%), 93/36/EEC (), 95/96/EC (*) and 96/157/EC (°), the Commission auth- orized derogations under special technical conditions in respect of potatoes for human consumption originating in Cuba, in the 1987 to 1995 seasons; Whereas there have never been confirmed findings of diseases and pests on samples drawn from imports pursuant to the said Decisions; Whereas the circumstances justifying the authorization still obtain; [t Z [] 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20. 27, 30. 1. 1997, p. 30. 153, 13. 6. 1987, p. 41. 100, 19. 4. 1988, p. 44. 59, 2. 3. 1989, p. 29. 316, 16. 11. 1991, p. 47. 16, 25. 1. 1993, p. 40. 75, 4. 4. 1995, p. 22. 36, 14. 2. 1996, p. 38. P 020000000 2222 [o2Ne RN oNNe] il el el il i [ttt b Z2Z2ZZ o'c'de ES B S e T > S 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 authorized to provide, under the conditions laid down in paragraph 2, for excep- tions to Article 4 (1) with regard to the prohibitions referred to in Part A, point 12 of Annex III to Directive 77/93/EEC, for potatoes other than potatoes intended for planting, originating in Cuba. 2. In addition to the requirements laid down in Annexes I, II and IV to Directive 77/93/EEC in relation to potatoes, the following specific conditions shall be satisfied: (@) the potatoes shall be other than potatoes intended for planting; (b) they shall either be immature potatoes, ie. ‘un- suberized’ potatoes with loose skin, or they shall have been treated for the suppression of their faculty of germination; (c) they shall have been grown in the province ‘Pinar del Rio’ in areas where Pseudomonas solanacearum (Smith) Smith is not known to occur; (d) they shall belong to varieties the seed potatoes of which were imported into Cuba only from Member States or from any other country for which the entry into the Community of potatoes intended for planting is permitted pursuant to Directive 77/93/EEC; (e) regular planned monitoring of imports into Cuba and of seed potatoes and ware potatoes marketed within Cuba is done by means of examination and testing of representative samples by scientifically recognized methods for Clavibacter michiganensis (Smith) Davis et al. ssp. sepedonicus (Spieckermann and Kotthoff) Davis et al., Pseudomonas solanacearum (Smith) Smith and potato spindle tuber viroid; (f) they shall have been grown in Cuba directly from seed potatoes certified in one of the Member States or, from seed potatoes certified in any other country for which the entry into the Community of potatoes intended for planting is permitted pursuant to Dir-