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)
From the outset, the evaluation identified broad based support for fuller alignment to the IPPC
standards (ISPM 5 and ISPM 11) and current practice in the field of IAS. This was confirmed
by the conclusion of the interventions made at the February conference, notably that Directive
2000/29/EC should be used to include IAS of impact on plant health 273 , but at some point the
line needs to be drawn on how much to include. For the most part there was consensus that
the line should be drawn after option iii. On the other hand, there have not been any strong
arguments against the explicit inclusion of some categories of IAS (under options ii and iii in
particular) in the scope of the Directive, with several contributors indicating that this has de
facto already occurred.
In October 2009 a workshop was organised on IAS by the Hungarian NPPO with
participation from 13 MS COPHs/NPPOs 274 , and its conclusions are taken into account in the
analysis. The workshop noted the importance of the explicit inclusion of IAS in the Directive
to provide clarification in the current scope. In this context, it was noted that more knowledge
and EU wide clarification is required on how infestation/introduction/further spread of new
invasive plants can be prevented, and that Article 16 of Directive 2000/29/EC need to be
clarified and strengthened. Also, it was suggested that an IAS Code of Conduct for pests
relevant for the environment should be considered in addition to regulation (i.e. a two level
approach: general legal obligation for measures against relevant IAS and details specified in
the Code), in order to provide more detail and flexibility if needed, although implementation
may be a challenge.
It should be noted that the scope of the IPPC comprises IAS pests included under options i, ii
and iii. The scope of the Convention is however limited to plant health and does not include
IAS pests impacting on human health only. In Pest Risk Analysis (ISPM No. 2), the impacts
of IAS pests on human health are only taken into account in the context of the social impacts
of a plant pest, along with its economic and environmental impacts. Inclusion of IAS pests
impacting on human health as such would therefore expand the scope of the CPHR to beyond
the protection of plant resources covered by the IPPC. In addition to classical pests such as
insects and micro-organisms, ISPM No 2 specifically addresses the risks posed by plants as
pests, biological control agents and living modified organisms, but not vertebrate pests
(option v). Inclusion of these would thus also go beyond the scope of the Convention.
273 Some delegates highlighted that the definition of HO in Directive 2000/29/EC has been fully aligned with that
of the IPPC, thus already today officially including IAS.
274 An Interactive International Workshop on Invasive Alien Species in EU countries was organised by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hungary in Budapest between 6-8 October 2009, inviting
COPHs and NPPO inspectors of EU MS and the neighbouring countries of Hungary. There were 40 participants
from 13 EU MS (AT, BG, CZ, DE, FR, HU, IE, LU, MT, NL, PL, RO, SI), including the Commission (DG
SANCO) and a scientific officer responsible for the issue in the EPPO Secretariat. During the two sessions of the
Workshop, plant health aspects of IAS, distribution, monitoring, control and legal regulations of common
ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and experiences of control measures of western corn rootworm (Diabrotica
virgifera virgifera) were discussed. The workshop has resulted in the following conclusions and proposals, and it
was agreed that conclusions should be sent to the Presidency of the European Council.
Food Chain Evaluation Consortium 312