Keeping Plant Pests Out Of The EU
26 July 2025, EU: EFSA has completed the assessment of 47 quarantine pests as part of a major scientific analysis. This work will support the European Commission update of the EU list of priority pests.
Since 2022, EFSA has involved 130 experts to support the European Commission in the revision of the current list of priority pests – quarantine pests that pose the most serious threats to the EU environment and its agriculture. The assessment focused on the analysis of biological and ecological data to estimate how the pests would spread and what impact they would have if introduced to EU territory. After shortlisting the most relevant pests, 47 pest species were examined, including the current 20 EU priority pests.
“This work contributes to improving the EU’s preparedness against the introduction of priority pests by enabling early detection and more efficient management of outbreaks,” said Sybren Vos, leader of EFSA’s Plant Health Monitoring Team. “It is a significant step towards protecting Europe’s biodiversity, agriculture and forestry.”
The resulting reports and datasets, comprising over 220 estimations of expansion rate and yield loss, and 150 environmental impact values , were provided to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to inform a model specifically designed for pest ranking. The model’s output will assist risk managers in revising the current list of 20 EU priority pests, originally adopted in 2019.
Background
Priority pests are plant pests regulated under EU plant health legislation. They have the potential to cause the most severe economic, environmental, and/or social damage. Once listed as priority pests, stronger EU-level surveillance and preparedness measures are triggered. These include mandatory annual surveys, contingency and eradication plans, simulation exercises and public awareness campaigns.
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