Szukaj

Following a series of trilogue meetings, in December 2015 the European Parliament and the Council of the EU finalised a compromise text on a new EU plant health regulation. Its overall objective is to address increased risks for the plant health sector posed by new pests and diseases having emerged as a result of globalisation and climate change, and by plants imported from third countries.

Following an evaluation of the European Union's plant health regime, on 6 May 2013 the European Commission proposed a new regulation on protective measures against plant pests. These include regulating pests on the basis of established criteria for risk assessment and prioritising those pests with the most serious consequences. More focus is being placed on high-risk trade coming from third countries. The proposal provides for better surveillance and the early eradication of outbreaks of new pests ...

Genetically modified (GM) crops require prior assessment and authorisation at EU level before they may be cultivated within the European Union. Since March 2015, Member States have new possibilities to restrict the cultivation of a given GM organism on all or part of their territory. By 3 October 2015, 19 Member States had entered requests to ban GM cultivation. By 9 November 2015, bans on GM cultivation had been agreed for all 19.

A plant pathogen called Xylella fastidiosa has already devastated close to 30 000 hectares of olive groves in the Italian region of Apulia, with major economic and social consequences for the olive production sector. Following notification of the Xylella outbreak by the Italian authorities in October 2013, the EU has adopted a series of emergency measures, which are now to be further tightened by stringent prevention and eradication actions aimed at curbing the epidemic.