7th Meeting of the Panel on Plant Protection Information

Utrecht, NL, 2020-02-04/05

 

 

The Panel on Plant Protection Information met at the offices of the NVWA (Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority) in Utrecht and was welcomed by Mr van Arhem (Director of NVWA). Warm thanks are due to Hans Meerman and his colleagues for the excellent organization of the meeting.

 

Panel members in Utrecht – more photos 

Games and communication material

 

Standard on raising awareness of trade on quarantine and emerging pests

A new draft Standard on raising awareness of trade on quarantine and emerging pests was discussed in detail by the Panel. The scope of this Standard still needs to be better defined (e.g. how to cover e-commerce and other specific trade pathways). The text will be revised by a small group of experts and the EPPO Secretariat and circulated to all Panel members for further discussion.

 

Platform on communication material

A pilot platform on communication was presented to the Panel. Its aim is to share communication material (e.g. pictures, videos, documents) among NPPOs and provide inspiration to the plant health community when preparing communication campaigns. The EPPO Secretariat was encouraged to continue developing this platform so that it can be released before the end of 2020.

 

Revision of EPPO datasheets

The Panel was informed of the progress made in the revision of the EPPO datasheets. All necessary IT development have been made within the EPPO Global Database (GD) to generate dynamic datasheets. A pilot project focussing on the revision of 11 datasheets for pests of importance to the Mediterranean region has been launched in collaboration with CIHEAM (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes) and Euphresco. Finally, discussions are underway between EPPO and the European Commission on a grant agreement (co-financing) to revise datasheets on pests that are listed as quarantine pests by the European Union.

 

EPPO Codes

EPPO activities that are conducted in the framework of an EU grant for the improvement of the EPPO coding system were presented. The aim of this project is to improve the contents of the coding system, so that it better meets the needs of all its users in the EPPO region and beyond. It was underlined that since 2018, many more EPPO Codes have been created (more than 6000 in 2018 and more than 4000 in 2019). In addition to plants and pests, the coding system now also includes the harmonized classification of plant protection users which is currently being developed by EPPO.

 

Pest reporting

The EPPO Secretariat explained how official pest reports sent by EU Member States via the Europhyt-Outbreak were received at EPPO. It was noted that some IT issues still remain to be resolved before these reports could be further transmitted to the IPPC Secretariat. The Panel recommended that discussions should continue with the European Commission, and that the issue of data transfer between RPPOs and the IPPC should also be raised at the next Technical Consultation between RPPOs.

 

Feed-back on EPPO information services

As a regular activity of the Panel, useful feedback was provided by the Panel to the EPPO Secretariat on all EPPO information services (websites, databases, platform on PRA, social media and publications) so that they can be further improved to meet users’ needs.

 

IYPH activities

The Panel discussed the EPPO activities that are being carried out in the IYPH, and the ‘Beastie the Bug’ campaign (https://beastiebug.eppo.int/) was much appreciated. Panel members also exchanged information about the different activities that are planned by NPPOs at national level.

 

EU activities on communication

In the framework of the new EU plant health legislation, several information documents are being prepared. In particular, an official EU poster informing passengers about the risks of moving plants and plant products is about to be published. This poster will explain the new EU rules: i.e. passengers will no longer be allowed to bring plants and plant products into the EU territory without phytosanitary certificate (with a few exceptions for some specific fruit). Videos on the new EU rules for passengers have also been produced.

 

Presentations

The following presentations were made during the meeting: