Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Directive 2002/53/EC of 13 June 2002 on the Common catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species^f1, and in particular Article 16(2)(b) thereof,

Whereas:

The Commission, in accordance with Article 17 of Directive 2002/53/EC, published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union, in the Common catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species, certain varieties of maize.

Pursuant to Article 16(1) of the said Directive, Member States are to ensure that, with effect from the publication referred to in Article 17, seeds of varieties accepted in accordance with that Directive or in accordance with the principles corresponding to those of that Directive are not subject to any marketing restrictions relating to the variety.

On 24 June 2005, the Commission received from the Republic of Poland a request for the prohibition, on the basis of Article 16(2)(b) of Directive 2002/53/EC, of the use and placing on the market of seed material from varieties of maize which are not suitable for cultivation in Poland. This request followed one concerning genetically modified varieties of maize which will be the subject of a separate decision.

On 9 December 2005, Poland sent to the Commission a list of varieties of maize it considered not suitable for cultivation in Polish conditions. This list was completed by the Polish authorities in a letter of 9 January 2006. Poland requests the authorisation to prohibit all the varieties of maize of the list from its territory for an indefinite period of time.

Having regard to the last sentence of Article 16(2)(b), which states that any such request by a Member State must be lodged before the end of the third calendar year following that of acceptance of the variety concerned in the Common catalogue, the request made by Poland in 2005 could not cover the varieties accepted in the Common catalogue before 1 January 2002.

From the information available for the varieties concerned, it is well known that they are not suitable for cultivation in any part of Poland because of their too high maturity class which is at least of 350 FAO index or equivalent maturity class. The climatic and agricultural factors concerned provide a permanent obstacle to cultivating these varieties in Poland.

Under these circumstances, the application of the Republic of Poland should be granted on the basis of Article 16(2)(b) for the varieties of maize listed in this decision, but refused for those varieties listed in the Common catalogue before 1 January 2002.

In order to allow the Commission to inform the other Member States and update the Common catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species provided for in Directive 2002/53/EC, Poland should be required to inform the Commission when it makes use of the authorisation granted by this decision.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Seeds and Propagating Material for Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: