Plant Health: prioritising the fight against 20 quarantine plant pests on the EU territory

The European Commission has just published a list of 20 regulated quarantine pests qualifying as priority pests, including Xylella fastidiosa, the Japanese beetle, the Asian long-horned beetle, Citrus greening and Citrus Black Spot, whose economic, environmental and social impact on EU’s territory is the most severe. Member States will have to launch information campaigns to the public, do annual surveys, prepare contingency plans, simulation exercises, and action plans for the eradication of these pests.

The selection of pests is based on the assessment carried out by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the European Food Safety Authority, which takes into account the probability of spreading, establishment and consequences of those pests for the Union. Views of a dedicated Experts Group and public feedback provided via the Better Regulation portal were also taken into account.

The new methodology shows for example that the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, the pest with the highest impact on agricultural crops, including fruit, could cause annual production losses of €5.5 billion, affecting 70% of the EU production value of older olive trees (over 30 years old) and 35% value of younger ones, in a scenario of the bacterium spreading across the entire EU. In addition to direct impacts on production, pests have significant indirect effects on a wide range of upstream or downstream economic sectors.

For example, should the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) spread across the entire EU, this could result in the direct loss of over 5% of the overall growing stock of several EU forestry tree species, such as alder, ash, beech, birch, elm, maple or plane trees. These trees are valued at €24 billion and the economic impact on the upstream forestry sector could amount to €50 billion.