1.For experimental purposes as referred to in Article 46(2)(f) of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, each Member State may authorise the use of certain oenological practices or processes not provided for in that Regulation or in this Regulation, for a maximum of three years, on condition that:
(a)the practices and processes concerned meet the requirements laid down in Article 42(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999;
(b)such practices and processes are applied to quantities not exceeding 50 000 hectolitres per year for any one experiment;
(c)the products obtained are not sent outside the Member State on whose territory the experiment was conducted;
(d)the Member State concerned informs the Commission and the other Member States at the beginning of the experiment of the terms of each authorisation.
‘Experiment’ shall mean an operation or operations carried out in the context of a well-defined research project with a single experimental protocol.
2.Before the end of the period referred to in paragraph 1, the Member State concerned shall forward to the Commission a report on the authorised experiment and the Commission shall notify the other Member States of the results thereof. Depending on these results, the Member State concerned may apply to the Commission for authorisation to continue the experiment, possibly with a larger quantity than in the original experiment, for a further maximum period of three years. The Member State shall submit an appropriate dossier in support of its application.
3.The Commission, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 75(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, shall decide on the application referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article; at the same time, it may decide to allow the experiment to be continued in other Member States under the same terms.
4.At the end of the period referred to in paragraph 1 or, where applicable, paragraph 2, and after gathering all the information on the experiment, the Commission may, if appropriate, submit to the Council a proposal for definitive authorisation of the oenological practice or process covered by the experiment.