2454 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

Evaluation of the Community Plant Health Regime: Final Report
DG SANCO Evaluation Framework Contract Lot 3 (Food Chain)
of the adequacy of diagnostic infrastructures at MS level, in particular with the constraints from
decreasing resources for this field and erosion of scientific expertise, as explored in section 3.9.1.
According to the general survey and expert opinion, diagnostics at EU level are fairly well
developed, but there is concern about erosion of expertise in the more traditional diagnostic
fields and of the underpinning taxonomic base/expertise. Concerns also exist with regard to
maintenance and access to collections. Overall, scientific expertise is considered to be adequate
from an EU point of view: MS CAs indicate that in case of need of expertise for particular HOs,
appropriate laboratories are found in other MS. However, the available expertise at national level
is highly variable between MS, and this causes some concern.
In terms of the organisation of diagnostics, MS have different approaches: there are some cases
where centralisation is applied, in others (MS with decentralised administration) regional
laboratories exist. In one MS, laboratory tasks are completely outsourced, partly also to other
MS.
Laboratory testing can be delegated to legal persons – private or public, such as universities,
research institutes or private laboratories, which may perform other than public functions. This
amendment to Art. 2.1.g. of Directive 2000/29/EC was introduced by Council Directive
2009/143/EC 183 , modifying earlier provisions (which allowed delegation of laboratory tasks only
to a legal person charged exclusively with specific public functions under its officially approved
constitution).
The organisation of diagnostics for plant health issues in the MS visited in the context of this
evaluation is indicated in Table 3-17.
MS describe different situations and limitations at country level. Overall, the majority of MS
consider that the existing capacity at national level only partially allows for a rapid and reliable
diagnosis of all regulated HOs; this is mostly explained by the limited and decreasing financial
and human resources. Gaps in detection capacity (in terms of methods and reference materials)
are also indicated by a number of MS, with regard to rare or new HOs. The MS field visits also
made this difference clear: in some cases, it was pointed out that it is increasingly difficult to find
experienced experts in specific fields as expertise is eroding - experts in classical methodologies
have to a large extent retired and young experts are few due to more attractive subjects using
innovative biotechnological tools in e.g. medical science.
The divergence in diagnostic capacity across the EU is also due to the inherent characteristics of
research on plant health which explains the difficulties in this field. As discussed in section 3.9.1,
plant science is not a ―self – financing area‖ nor a high priority compared to other scientific
fields such as nanotechnology, engineering etc. Indeed, as in most research fields, funding will
depend on the level of commercial interest for the application of the research outputs. In those
MS where plant health is important for trade and production, the diagnostic sector appears to be
highly developed, with a high volume of resources devoted to research and a clear structure and
183 Council Directive 2009/143/EC of 26 November 2009 amending Directive 2000/29 as regards the delegation of
the tasks of laboratory testing.
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