(1)

The Commission, in accordance with Directive 2002/53/EC, publishes in the C-series of the Official Journal of the European Union the Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species (2), which includes certain varieties of hemp.

(2)

Article 32(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 (3) of the European Parliament and of the Council provides that in order to prevent support being granted for illegal crops, areas used for the production of hemp may only be eligible if the varieties used have a tetrahydrocannabinol content not exceeding 0,2 %.

(3)

Article 45(3) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 809/2014 (4) lays down that, if for the second year the average of all the samples of a given hemp variety exceeds the tetrahydrocannabinol content as laid down in Article 32(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1307/2013, the Member State is to request authorisation to prohibit the marketing of such variety in accordance with Article 18 of Directive 2002/53/EC.

(4)

On 28 April 2015 the Commission received a request from the United Kingdom for the authorisation to prohibit the marketing of the hemp variety Finola, as its tetrahydrocannabinol content exceeded the authorised content of 0,2 % for the second year in a row.

(5)

On this basis, the request from the United Kingdom should be granted.

(6)

In order to allow the Commission to inform the other Member States and to update the Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species, the United Kingdom should be required to inform the Commission of the date from when it intends to apply the authorisation granted by this Decision.

(7)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,