L 247)24 Official Journal of the European Communities 17.9.2001 COMMISSION DECISION of 7 September 2001 on guidance for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council allowing voluntary participation by organisations in a Community eco- management and audit scheme (EMAS) (notified under document number C(2001) 2504) (Text with EEA relevance) (2001/681/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 allowing voluntary participation by organisations in a Com- munity eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) (1), and in particular Article 2(s) second paragraph, Article 3(3)(b) and Article 8 thereof, Whereas: (1)  Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 establishes the require- ments for organisations to participate in EMAS. (2)  Guidance should be laid down to ensure that Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 is applied uniformly by all the Member States. (3) Itis appropriate to identify specific cases where defining the appropriate entity to be registrered as an EMAS organisation might be difficult and to provide for a harmonised aproach to this situation as well as for exceptions where registration is allowed for entity smaller than a site. (4)  Guidance should be laid down for the establishment of the verification programmes of organisations under EMAS, for conducting validations of environmental statements and subsequent yearly updates, as well as for exceptions to the principle of yearly validated updates. (5) It is also appropriate to harmonise the use of the EMAS logo at practical level and to ensure that the exhaustive () O] L 114,24.4.2001, p. 1. list of exceptions for use of the logo in certain conditions is clearly spelt out. (6)  The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee estab- lished pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 7612001, HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: Article 1 Entities under the second paragraph of Article 2(s) of Regu- lation (EC) No 761/2001 shall be registered as an organisation in accordance with the guidance set out in Annex L. Atrticle 2 Organisations shall have the updates of their environmental statement validated as referred to in Article 3(b) of Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 in accordance with the guidance set out in Annex IL. Article 3 The EMAS logo as referred to in Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 shall be used in accordance with the guidance set out in Annex IIL Article 4 This Decision is addressed to the Member States. Done at Brussels, 7 September 2001. For the Commission Margot WALLSTROM Member of the Commission