Produce entering the community from third parties must be accompanied by a certificate guaranteeing that it does not carry pests
This week, negotiators from the Parliament and the Council reached a provisional political agreement on the reform of the Regulation on protective measures against plant pests.
The co-legislators agreed that a Union plant health emergency team would assist Member States or third countries bordering EUat their request, with measures to prevent outbreaks of quarantine pests in the Union and pests that may be eligible for quarantine pests. The team will consist of experts appointed by the Commission and nominated by the Member States.
Another change in the law approved by the Parliament and the Council is the obligation for EU countries to establish new multiannual risk-based survey programs that ensure timely detection of dangerous pests every five to ten years and to review and update the programs based on on phytosanitary requirements. the situation of the respective territory.
Importers in the EU will be obliged to declare in phytosanitary certificate what measures they have taken to ensure compliance with pest quarantine rules not only for Union quarantine pests but also for regulated non-quarantine pests, under the agreed reform.
To simplify procedures, MEPs led by rapporteur Clara Aguilera insisted on better use of the electronic system for submission of notifications and reports by Member States and agreed that before a plant passport is issued, the movement of the relevant plant, plant product or other object may be accompanied by an electronic phytosanitary certificate contained in the system or by a certified copy of the original phytosanitary certificate.
The agreed text will have to be formally approved by the European Parliament and the Council before being published in the Official Journal to become binding law.
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