4. 7. 96 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 165/37 COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 21 June 1996 amending Decision 93/411/EEC authorizing Member States to provide for derogations from certain provisions of Council Directive 77/93/EEC in respect of plants of strawberry (Fragaria L.), intended for planting, other than seeds, originating in Argentina (96/403/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 Directive 96/14/EC (3, and in particular Article 14 (1) thereof, Having regard to the request made by the Member States, Whereas, under the provisions of Directive 77/93/EEC, plants of strawberry (Fragaria L)), intended for planting, other than seeds, originating in non-European countries, other than Mediterranean countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the continental States of the USA, may in principle not be introduced into the Community; Whereas, the growing in Argentina of plants of Fragaria L. intended for planting, other than seeds, from plants supplied by some Member States, in order to prolongate the growing season of the plants, has become an esta- blished practice; whereas these plants are afterwards re-exported to the Community in order to have them planted for the production of fruits; Whereas, by Commission Decision 93/411/EEC (3), as last amended by Decision 95/53/EC (*), Member States were authorized to provide, under certain conditions, for dero- gations from certain general rules of Directive 77/93/EEC "y OJ No L 26, 31. 1. 1977, p. 20. 52) OJ No L 68, 19. 3. 1996, p. 24. () OJ No L 182, 24. 7. 1993, p. 63. () OJ No L 53, 9. 3. 1995, p. 35. for plants of strawberry (Fragaria L), intended for plant- ing, other than seeds, originating in Argentina; Whereas Decision 93/411/EEC as amended stipulated that the authorization should expire on 31 December 1996; Whereas there have been no confirmed findings of harmful oganisms on samples drawn from the plants imported pursuant to Decision 93/411/EEC; whereas however, it has become necessary to clarify the require- ment in Article 1 (2) (b) of Decision 93/411/EEC that the official phytosanitary certificate required under Article 7 of Directive 77/93/EEC must specify under ‘Additional declaration’, the name of the variety and the Member State certification scheme under which the parent plants had been certified; whereas also it appears appropriate to define in a more detailed manner the procedures for the import of the plants, in particular the exchange of infor- mation between Member States when the Member State of destination is different from the Member State through which the plants of Fragaria L. are introduced; 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 Decision 93/411/EEC is hereby amended as follows: 1. In Article 1 (2) (a), the text under (i) is replaced by the following: ‘(i) produced exclusively from parent plants, certified under an approved certification scheme of a Member State and those parent plants shall have been imported from a Member State’.