Establishment of demarcated areas
Article 3
1. Where the presence of the specified pest is officially confirmed, the Member State concerned shall, without delay, establish a demarcated area consisting of: (a) an infested zone within a radius of at least 100 m around the infested plants, including the infested plants and all specified plants which are liable to become infested (‘infested zone’); and (b) a buffer zone with a width of at least 10 km beyond the boundary of the infested zone. 2. The delimitation of the demarcated area shall take into account the scientific principles, the biology of the specified pest, the level of infestation, the particular distribution of the specified plants in the area concerned, and the evidence for establishment of the specified pest. The initial demarcation of the infested zone shall be immediately followed by a delimiting survey, with a design and sampling scheme allowing to detect, with a 95 % level of confidence, a 1 % presence of infested plants. The delimiting survey shall: (a) be based on the Authority’s Guidelines for statistically sound and risk-based surveys of Agrilus planipennis ; (b) include branch sampling or other suitable methods, capable to detect the pest before emergence. 3. Within the demarcated areas, the competent authorities shall raise public awareness concerning the threat of the specified pest and the measures adopted to prevent its further spread outside of those areas. They shall ensure that the professional operators and the general public are aware of the delimitation of the demarcated areas. 4. The competent authorities may decide to reduce the radius of the buffer zone, based on information about the size of the infestation, density of specified plants, origin and age of the outbreak. In such case, they shall immediately report that reduction to the Commission and to the other Member States, and the reasons leading to it.