Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)267 - Protective measures against pests of plants - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2013)267 - Protective measures against pests of plants. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2013)267  |
| date | 06-05-2013 |
Plant health is a key factor for sustainable and competitive agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Healthy seeds and propagating material are required for profitable crops and for ensuring jobs, plant innovation and food security. In the case of trees and shrubs, protecting plant health is essential for the preservation of the Union's forests, landscape and public and private green. Plant health is also important for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Pests from other continents are especially dangerous. European plants and trees usually lack adequate genetic resistance against foreign pests, which moreover often do not have natural enemies here. When introduced into Europe, foreign pests cause severe economic damage. They may jump to previously unaffected host species, spread fast across countries, and cause lasting yield reduction and permanently increased costs for production and control. The often severe economic losses undermine the profitability and competitiveness of agriculture and forestry. The establishment of new pests may elicit trade bans from third countries, damaging EU exports. Not all pests can be controlled with pesticides and, where available, pesticide use may be undesirable.
The current EU regulatory framework for plant health aims to protect European agriculture and forestry by preventing the entry and spread of foreign pests. The main tool hereby is Council Directive 2000/29/EC, which also reflects international trade agreements in this area. The EU phytosanitary (plant health) regime is unique in that it is an open regime: movements of plants and plant products into and within the Union are allowed on condition that specific restrictions and requirements are respected (e.g. provenance from a pest free area or appropriate treatment). The high volumes of imports from other continents nevertheless imply a high probability of future outbreaks of foreign pests.
The regime is indispensable for protecting the health, economy and competitiveness of the EU plant production sector as well as for maintaining the Union's open trade policy. However, the existing regulatory framework is being criticised for being unable to stop the increased influx of dangerous new pests caused by globalisation of trade. Moreover climate change enables those pests to survive in Europe, while they could not in the past, and renders crops and ecosystems more vulnerable to new pests. Major outbreaks in the past decade of dangerous import-related pests affecting forestry have raised societal and political awareness of the costs and impacts of inadequate protection.
An evaluation of the regime (2010) has shown that the basic legislation has to be amended in order to be able to fully address these increased risks. The main problems identified relate to insufficient focus on prevention in relation to increased imports of high-risk commodities, the need for prioritising pests at EU level across all 27 Member States, the need for better instruments for controlling the presence and natural spread of pests in case they eventually reach the Union territory, a need for modernising and upgrading the instruments concerning intra-EU movements (plant passports and protected zones), and a need to foresee additional resources.
A need for 'greening' of the regime has furthermore emerged and objectives relating to the natural environment have gained importance. This requires changes to the intervention logic, also in terms of financing, of the regime, which is moving from a private good regime for agriculture to a mixed public/private good regime for agriculture, forestry, natural environment and landscape.
The science base of the regime (research, laboratories) needs to be reinforced. There has been a steady erosion of the classical plant pathology and pest taxonomy in universities, endangering the support from science to assess risks from new pests and to adequately diagnose those pests in the laboratory. A State of Emergency declaration has been issued in this respect by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation.
Finally, a new balance needs to be struck as concerns costs and responsibility sharing (partnership development) and there is a need to increase effectiveness and reduce unnecessary costs and administrative burden. A need for modernisation of the regime furthermore exists in terms of incentives for compliance.
The present revision aims to overcome these flaws and to put in place a robust, transparent and sustainable regulatory framework that is fit for purpose. The proposed Regulation replaces and repeals Directive 2000/29/EC.
The proposal is part of a package of reviews relating to the health of plants, quality of plant reproductive material, health of animals, official controls concerning plants, animals, food and feed, and Union expenditures for those policies.
The proposal reinforces the synergies with the plant reproductive material regime, while removing avoidable duplications and unnecessary burden from those duplications. This is achieved by repositioning the pests that are currently regulated under the so-called marketing Directives for seed and plant propagating material under the proposed plant health Regulation. That repositioning will introduce flexibility to change the status of widespread quarantine pests into quality pests, as requested by professional operators and Member States, so as to use the resources available to the phytosanitary authorities for true Union priorities. In the meanwhile, the proposal ensures that the existing practical arrangements in the Member States concerning the certification of plant reproductive material for quality pests can remain. Altogether, the rearrangements between the EU plant health regime and plant reproductive material regime should reinforce the coherence between those two regimes (through shared use of certification schemes, labels and registers) and thus result in reduced burden for professional operators. The proposed new arrangements will, however, require enhanced coordination between the competent authorities in the Member States for plant health and plant reproductive material.
The proposal does not contain provisions concerning official controls by the competent authorities of compliance by professional operators with the Union phytosanitary legislation, as are currently present in Directive 2000/29/EC. Those controls are now being positioned exclusively in the proposal concerning official controls (replacing Regulation (EC) 882/2004). This will also allow improved coherence with the new Customs Code and allow simplified procedures at import.
The proposal does not contain provisions on expenditures eligible for a financial contribution from the Union, as exist in Directive 2000/29/EC. The provisions concerned, drafted in accordance with the preferred option of the impact assessment, are included in the accompanying legal proposal for a Regulation on food and feed expenditure, which concerns the management of Union expenditures relating to the food chain, animal health and animal welfare, and relating to plant health and plant reproductive material.
The proposal will be complementary to the proposal concerning Invasive Alien Species foreseen under the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
Contents
- RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
- LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
- Regulatory framework
- Problem analysis
- Objective of the proposal
- Relationship to other proposals in the package
- Consultation process
- Data collection
- Impact assessment
- Small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises
- Fundamental rights
- Chapter I: Subject matter, scope and definitions
- Chapter II: Quarantine pests
- Chapter III: Quality pests
- Chapter IV: Measures concerning plants, plant products and other objects
- Chapter V: Registration of professional operators and traceability
- Chapter VI: Certification of plants, plant products and other objects
- Chapter VII: Measures supporting the implementation of the Regulation
- Chapter VIII: Final provisions
The Council on 21 November 2008 invited the Commission to proceed to an evaluation of the EU plant health regime and to consider possible modifications to the existing legal framework and the impact of such modifications. The Commission initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the regime from the introduction of the internal market (1993) and contracted the necessary study out to an external consultant. Member State experts participated in the Inter-Service Steering Group for the evaluation. A conference took place on 23-24 February 2010 to inform the stakeholders and MS on the progress of the evaluation and to consult them on the provisional options for the future developed by the consultant. The input received framed the final options and recommendations. The report of the evaluation was presented in a second conference on 28 September 2010 including stakeholders, the general public, and representatives of MS and third countries. Linked to this conference was a public consultation on the recommendations from the evaluation and the scope of the subsequent impact assessment.
In preparation for the impact assessment, the options recommended by the external consultant were discussed with the Member States in Council with the Chief Officers for Plant Health (COPHs) in many rounds of meetings and, as concerns the coherence with the Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) regime, the Heads of Service for that regime and the relevant Working Party. Five task forces with Member State experts and Commission were convened to further discuss the main areas of change.
Stakeholders (industry association representatives and NGOs) were consulted from the very start of the review process, prior to the initiation of the evaluation, during the evaluation study and again during the preparation of the impact assessment. An ad-hoc Working Group on Plant Health was set up under the Advisory Group on the Food Chain, Animal and Plant Health. The progress was presented and discussed in several meetings of the aforementioned Advisory Group, in other Advisory Groups and on invitation in meetings of COPA-COGECA, EUROPATAT, ESA and UNION FLEURS. Stakeholder consultation was a key element of the evaluation study and the supplementary economic study contracted out to an external consultant. The consultation concerned changes of the EU plant health regime itself as well as elements of the regime to be transferred to or from the plant reproductive material regime and the EU regime on official controls on food and feed, animal health and welfare, plant health and plant reproductive material.
The conferences organised during the review process ensured stakeholders' input and views concerning the recommendations and the scope of the impact assessment, both orally at the conferences and through the linked public consultation. A consultation on the technical change proposals was linked to the meeting of the Working Group on Plant Health on 18 February 2011 and targeted the preferred way forward for the changes with major impact. Consultations were additionally published on the dedicated web page of DG SANCO. A final consultation on the strategic options was launched on 13 May 2011.
The collection of data commenced with a comprehensive evaluation of the regime by the external consultant from 2009 to 2010. The evaluation included an ex post analysis of the regime for the period 1993-2008, the collection of economic data on costs and administrative burden for competent authorities and stakeholders stemming from the regime, as well as the development ex ante of options and recommendations for the future. The evaluation report was delivered in May 2010.
The internal process to develop the IA was further supported by a second contract with the consultant. This contract concerned a study on the quantification of costs and benefits of amendments to the regime, supplementary to the data that had been collected during the evaluation. The study consisted of modules addressing the ex ante assessment of the economic impact of specific technical options for the revision of the legislation. The scope of the issues to be addressed had been subject to stakeholder consultation. The modules were set up in such a way that aggregation was possible to potential overall policy options. In July 2011, the final report of the study was delivered by the consultant. Where necessary further information was gathered from the literature, study reports and queries to assess the key impacts the change in policy would have. Furthermore, the social and environmental impacts of the policy options were assessed by Commission's services.
Four options were developed to improve the regime:
Option 1: Improve only the legal form and clarity of the regime. The legislation would be converted from a Directive into a Regulation, and simplified and clarified. The status quo would be maintained in terms of substance.
Option 2: Prioritise, modernise and step up prevention. Additional to Option 1, prioritisation would be improved by transforming the current Annexes I and II, which list regulated pests according to technical features irrespective of their priority for the Union, into lists based on intervention logic and priority. The plant passport and protected zone systems would be modernised (responsibility sharing with professional operators) and upgraded (plant passport scope, format, mandatory cost-recovery based plant passport fees as already exist for import controls, rules for surveillance and outbreak eradication in protected zones). The coherence between the PHR and the plant reproductive material regime would be improved to increase effectiveness and reduce costs for professional operators. Prevention would be reinforced by introducing a new provision concerning high-risk plant reproductive materials (plants for planting) that are not authorised for introduction into the Union or subject to specific enhanced physical controls until completion of a risk analysis, and by removing exemptions for passenger luggage (to be subject to low frequency controls to minimise the cost impacts).
Option 3: Prioritise, modernise, step up prevention and reinforce actions against outbreaks. Additional to Option 2, obligations would be introduced for surveillance and contingency planning. In analogy with the arrangements in the animal health regime, EU co-financing would be made available for surveillance and, in certain cases, for financial compensation of direct losses of professional operators. The legal instruments for eradication and containment would be further developed. The exclusion of natural spread related measures would be removed.
Option 4: Prioritise, modernise, step up prevention, reinforce actions against outbreaks and expand the scope to invasive plants. Additional to Option 3, the regime would also cover invasive plants, in terms of legal provisions for measures and EU co-financing. Invasive plants (other than parasitic plants) would not be covered in Options 1, 2 and 3.
The assessment of the impacts of the four options revealed that Option 3 provided the best way forward to achieve the objectives with the best cost-benefit level and an optimal balance of inputs from Member States, professional operators and the Union. Option 3 should have a significant positive impact on profitability and economic growth of the sectors involved; it was also the closest reflection of the outcome of the stakeholder and MS consultation.
The EU budget necessary to implement Option 3 was secured in the Commission proposal for the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020. The corresponding legal provisions are included in the legal proposal for a Regulation laying down provisions for the management of expenditure relating to the food chain, animal health and animal welfare, and relating to plant health and plant reproductive material.
The nature of the plant health regime requires that small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are not exempted from the obligations of this Regulation. The majority of the enterprises affected by the regime are SME and exempting them a priori would fundamentally jeopardise the regime's objectives. However, the proposal exempts enterprises selling plants and plant products exclusively to the local market from the obligation to issue plant passports, which will moreover not be required for sales to final non-professional consumers anyhow. For micro-enterprises, special arrangements concerning potential refunding of fees for plant health controls, within the framework of State Aid rules, will be made possible under the new Regulation concerning official controls.
This Regulation respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter on Fundamental rights of the European Union. It should be applied by the Member States in accordance with those rights and principles, implemented as appropriate in their national legislation. Certain provisions of this Regulation nevertheless limit particular rights under the Charter, however only to the extent strictly necessary for protecting the general interest of the Union concerned by this Regulation and conserving the essence of the rights at stake.
Eradication of outbreaks of foreign pests can only be successful if all sources of infestation are removed. Apart from outbreaks of quarantine pests on the premises of professional operators, outbreaks may also take place in public or private green. In those cases, the eradication measures need to include the infested and potentially infested plants in that public and private green in order to be successful at all (any remaining infested plants will act as a source of new infestations elsewhere). This implies that, in certain cases, competent authorities of Member States need to be given access to private premises for official controls, possibly followed by the imposition of treatment or eradication measures or certain restrictions or prohibitions on the use of plants. This is a limitation of Articles 7 and 17 of the Charter on Fundamental Rights concerning, respectively, the Respect for Private and Family Life and the Right to Property. That limitation is necessary to achieve an objective of general interest, being the protection of plant health in the Union. The limitation is proportionate because the objective of general interest cannot be achieved without ensuring that phytosanitary measures are respected equally by all (refraining from destruction of infested plants in private gardens would annihilate the benefits of eradication measures imposed on professional operators and carried out in public-owned green). It will be the responsibility of the Member States to provide fair compensation to affected citizens in good time for the suffered loss. The essence of the Right to Property is thus conserved.
Anybody who is aware of the presence of a quarantine pest will be obliged to notify the presence of that quarantine pest to the competent authorities, accompanied with the information concerning the origin and the nature of the material concerned. This will also apply to laboratories and research organisation encountering pests in samples provided to them. This may in some cases constitute a limitation of Article 8 of the Charter, concerning the Right to Protection of Personal Data. That limitation is necessary to achieve the public interest objective of plant health in the Union, as findings of quarantine pests need to be made known to the competent authorities in order to ensure the immediate eradication of outbreaks. The limitation is proportionate because personal data are subject to the provision only to the extent that they are indispensable for the competent authorities to locate the outbreaks and take the necessary action. The essence of the Right to Protection of Personal Data is thus conserved.
The territorial scope of the regime does not include any non-European outermost regions of Member States, as those regions belong to other biogeographic regions of the world, where exactly those pests occur against which the European territories of the Member States require protection. The territorial scope of the regime does include part of the Macaronesian archipelago (the island of Madeira and the Azores), which forms a biogeographic region overlapping with the Mediterranean region, in particular the Iberian peninsula, in terms of natural vegetation. It is therefore appropriate to include that archipelago in the scope of the regime. Annex I lists the territories of the Member States that are covered by the Treaty on the Functioning of European Union but, for the purpose of this Regulation, are considered as third countries.
Invasive plants other than parasitic plants (physically feeding on host plants) are excluded from the scope, in line with the outcome of the impact assessment.
Definitions are provided as necessary.
In Directive 2000/29/EC, pests are listed in specific Annexes. The proposal, instead, sets out the conceptual nature of quarantine pests and subsequently lists them in implementing acts, either as Union quarantine pests or Protected Zone quarantine pests. Union quarantine pests require eradication measures in the entire Union territory, while for Protected Zone quarantine pests that is only the case within specified protected zones where certain pests are absent, while they are known to occur in other parts of the Union territory. The proposal empowers the Commission to list certain quarantine pests as priority pests for the Union, up to a maximum of 10% of the listed Union quarantine pests. Those pests will be subject to an enhanced level of obligations concerning preparedness and eradication, supplemented by enhanced financial support from the Union for the required actions. Criteria to decide whether a pest qualifies as a quarantine pest, Union or Protected Zone quarantine pest, or priority pest are provided in Annex II of the Regulation. A transfer is foreseen of the pests currently listed in Annexes I and II of Directive 2000/29/EC to the appropriate lists of the future implementing acts. No distinction will be made any longer between pests currently listed in Annex I and Annex II of Directive 2000/29/EC.
This chapter furthermore sets out detailed rules on notification of the presence of quarantine pests, measures to be taken for the eradication of those pests including the restriction of areas subject to eradication measures, surveys to be carried out for the presence of pests and the establishment of contingency plans and eradication plans concerning outbreaks of priority pests.
The provisions in this chapter empower the Commission to adopt implementing acts on permanent measures to manage quarantine pests that have become established in the Union territory. Those acts can also be adopted on a temporary basis for non-listed quarantine pests, if necessary using the urgency procedure established under the Lisbon Treaty. The tools developed in this chapter exist today under Directive 2000/29/EC, however the proposal develops those tools explicitly. A provision is included allowing Member States to take stricter measures against pests than foreseen in the Union legislation, on condition that those measures do not restrict in any way the free movement of plants, plant products and other regulated objects on the internal market.
The chapter also covers the provisions concerning protected zones, which maintain the existing system, however explicitly reinforced to ensure that protected zones are technically justified and that any outbreaks of the Protected Zone quarantine pests concerned are properly and timely eradicated. If not, the protected zone will be revoked. With these changes, the Union's protected zone system aligns with the pest-free area system under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), as requested by the regime's stakeholders and by third countries.
Pests that affect the intended use of plants for planting, but do not require eradication, are regulated today under the marketing Directives for seed and plant propagating material and, partly, in Annex II to Directive 2000/29/EC. The proposal categorises them all as Union quality pests. It sets out the conceptual nature of such pests and subsequently lists them through implementing acts. Criteria to decide whether a pest qualifies as a Union quality pest are provided in Annex II. Quality pests will not be regulated under the legal proposal for Plant Reproductive Material, other than their inclusion, where appropriate, in certification schemes.
Schematic representation of the various types of pests in the proposal, the decision process for their qualification and the measures required against them.
Directive 2000/29/EC has Annexes listing prohibitions for certain plants, plants products and other objects (Annex III), and specific requirements for the introduction into and movement within the Union (Annex IV). The proposal empowers the Commission to adopt such lists through implementing acts. The provisions in Chapter IV furthermore concern rules for recognition of measures of third countries as equivalent to the Union measures, and derogations to the prohibitions. The respective rules concerning the movement of plants, plant products and other objects into and within protected zones are also addressed.
New to the Union plant health regime is an Article empowering the Commission to adopt implementing acts to address emerging risks from certain plants for planting from certain third countries which require precautionary measures. Listed plant materials will require intensified visual examination and testing, or subjection to a quarantine period, or will be subject to a temporary prohibition of introduction into the Union. Those measures shall apply for two years, prolongable once. During that time, a full risk assessment shall be developed, followed by a decision to regulate the material concerned on a permanent basis, or to drop the temporary measures.
New is also an article setting out the basic rules for quarantine stations, when the use of those stations is required by the Regulation or by secondary acts under the Regulation.
The introduction into the Union of regulated plants by passengers in their luggage will no longer be exempted from the respective requirements and prohibitions. This is necessary because plants in passenger luggage have been found an increasing risk for the phytosanitary status of the Union and jeopardise the success of the regime.
New is finally an Article requiring that exports of plants, plant products and other objects to third countries shall take place either in accordance to the Union rules, or, if the third country's rules so allow or the third country explicitly so agrees through bilateral agreements or otherwise, in accordance to the requirements of that third country.
The proposal requires the relevant professional operators to be registered, in a register which will also contain the professional operators required to be registered under the proposed Regulation concerning plant reproductive material. This should reduce burden for professional operators. Registered operators shall fulfil certain requirements for the traceability of the plant material under their control.
Directive 2000/29/EC has an Annex (V) listing requirements concerning certification of plants, plant products and other objects introduced into or moved within the Union. The proposal empowers the Commission to adopt such lists through delegated acts. The respective rules concerning the certification of plants, plant products and other objects introduced into and moved within protected zones are also addressed.
The proposal foresees that all plants for planting, other than certain seeds, shall require a phytosanitary certificate for introduction into the Union and a plant passport for movement within the Union. Plant passports shall be required for all movements between professional operators, but not for sales to final non-professional users. The plant passport will be simplified and harmonised. Instead of a lot number, the plant passport may use a chip, barcode or hologram linking to the internal traceability systems of professional operators.
Examinations on plants, plant products and other objects requiring a plant passport may require the use of certification schemes with regard to certain quarantine pests and/or quality pests, where examinations in the field during the growing season are indispensable. This possibility could be created thanks to the inclusion of quality pests in the plant health Regulation. Where certification schemes are required under the plant health Regulation, it is provided that the certification schemes created under the proposed Regulation concerning plant reproductive material shall be used. This should preclude that double schemes are set up, which would result in double costs for professional operators.
Plant passports shall be issued by registered operators that are authorised so by the competent authorities, or, on their request, by the competent authorities. Where plant material requires a plant passport under the plant health Regulation and a certification label under the proposed Regulation concerning plant reproductive material, the plant passport and the certification label shall be combined in a single document. This should preclude double costs for professional operators, where the issuance is done by the competent authorities.
Rules are foreseen concerning the authorisation and supervision of professional operators issuing plant passports and for the examination of the plant material concerned, in order to ensure that that material complies with all provisions of the Regulation.
Rules are also foreseen concerning the authorisation and supervision of wood packaging material producers who apply a certain mark to that material, following its treatment according to the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 on Regulation of wood packaging material in international trade.
For export purposes, the proposal foresees the introduction of a pre-export certificate, for cases where plant material is exported from a Member State which is not the Member State of origin. The pre-export certificate will replace the currently used informal guidance document agreed by the Member States.
The proposal foresees the establishment of an electronic notification system for notification and reporting.
The proposal foresees that the Commission will be assisted by a new Standing Committee, which will include the existing Committees dealing with the food chain, animal and plant health and plant reproductive material (instead of the existing Standing Committee on Plant Health).
The proposal foresees amendments to the Regulation laying down provisions for the management of expenditure relating to the food chain, animal health and animal welfare, and relating to plant health and plant reproductive material, which is foreseen to be adopted in advance of the current legal proposal. Those amendments include the possibility for the Union to co-finance measures concerning priority pests (a pest category created in the current proposal) and compensation to operators for the foregone value of plant material that is destroyed as part of eradication measures concerning priority pests.
The proposal repeals six so-called Control Directives concerning the management of certain quarantine pests (potato wart fungus, potato cyst nematodes, potato brown rot, potato ring rot, carnation leafrollers and San José scale) that are known to be present in the Union. Acts of such nature will in future be adopted as secondary acts under the proposed Regulation and not as co-decided acts. The Directives on pests of potato will be replaced by secondary acts under now proposed Regulation, without changing their substance. The Directives on carnation leafrollers and San José scale will not be replaced.
The financial provisions and appropriations for implementing the Regulation up to 31 December 2020 will be presented in the forthcoming legal proposal for a Regulation on the management of expenditure relating to the food chain, animal health and animal welfare, and relating to plant health and plant reproductive material. The current proposal does not imply any expenditures which will not be part of the financial statement of the legal proposal for that Regulation and it does not require additional human resources.