On Tuesday evening, negotiators from the Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the reform of Regulation on protective measures against pests of plants.
Co-legislators agreed that a Union Plant Health Emergency Team would assist Member States or third countries bordering the EU, upon their request, with measures preventing outbreaks of Union quarantine pests and pests that may fulfill the conditions for quarantine pests. The Team will be composed of experts appointed by the Commission and nominated by member states.
Another change to the law agreed upon by the Parliament and the Council is the obligation for EU countries to establish new multiannual programs for risk-based surveys that ensure the timely detection of dangerous pests every five to ten years and review and update the programs based on the phytosanitary situation of the territory concerned.
Importers to the EU will be obliged to declare in a phytosanitary certificate which measures they have taken to ensure compliance with rules for the quarantine of pests, not only for Union quarantine pests but also for regulated non-quarantine pests, according to the agreed reform.
To simplify the procedures, MEPs, led by the rapporteur Clara Aguilera (S&D, ES), insisted on better use of the electronic system for the submission of notifications and reports by the member states and agreed that before a plant passport is issued, the movement of a plant, plant product or other object concerned can be accompanied by an electronic phytosanitary certificate contained in the system or by a certified copy of the original phytosanitary certificate.
Next steps
The agreed text will now have to be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council before it is published in the Official Journal to become a binding law.
Background
The Plant Health Law sets out rules to protect the EU against the entry and spread of new pests of plants ("Union quarantine pests") and fight against pests already present in the EU ("regulated non-quarantine pests"). On 17 October 2023, the Commission submitted a revision of the rules in order to make them more effective and easier to apply.