Brussels,

Plant health and biosecurity

The EU’s plant health and biosecurity policy is designed to protect crops, forests, wild plants and the wider environment from the introduction and spread of harmful plant pests. Its main objective is prevention: the EU seeks to stop dangerous organisms from entering the Union, detect them quickly when they appear, and contain or eradicate them before they cause major economic or environmental damage. This makes plant health policy a core part of food security, agricultural productivity, biodiversity protection and safe trade in plants and plant products.

The policy is built around several operational pillars. It includes plant health rules, systems for monitoring pest outbreaks, the designation of protected zones, and controls on trade in plants and plant products both from non-EU countries and within the EU. It also relies on technical coordination through tools such as EUROPHYT, expert and working groups, and emergency response capacity through the Plant Health Emergency Team. In addition, the framework covers newer issues such as the use of invertebrate biological control agents (IBCAs) against plant pests.

Overall, the EU approach combines biosecurity, surveillance, trade controls and rapid response. The aim is not only to react to plant health threats, but to create a permanent system that reduces risk across the whole plant production and trade chain.

Plant Health Emergency Team Plant health rules EUROPHYT Expert groups and working groups Plant pests outbreaks in the EU Protected zones Trade in plants & plant products from non-EU countries Trade in plants and plant products within the EU Invertebrate biological control agents (IBCAs) against plant pests