EU funded LIFE project: Mitigating the threat of invasive alien plants in the EU through pest risk analysis to support the EU Regulation 1143/2014
When originally published in 2012, the EPPO prioritization process for invasive alien plants was designed with emphasis on plant health concerns. However, with the adoption of the European Union (EU) Regulation No. 1143/2014, more emphasis is now placed on impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services and thus under the LIFE funded project ‘Mitigating the threat of invasive alien plants in the EU through pest risk analysis to support the EU Regulation 1143/2014’, the EPPO prioritization process has been adapted to meet the requirements of the new regulation. The EPPO prioritization process is designed (i) to produce a list of invasive alien plants that are established or could potentially establish in the EU; and (ii) to determine which of these species have the highest priority for a risk assessment and, eventually, to be proposed for inclusion in the list of plants that are of EU concern. Therefore, the process takes into consideration the criteria from the EU Regulation No. 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of invasive alien species. In agreement with Article 4 of this Regulation, the highest priority for performing a risk assessment is given to alien plant species that satisfy the following criteria: (i) they are alien to the territory of the EU excluding the outermost regions, (ii) they are capable of establishing a viable population and spreading rapidly in the environment in the EU (excluding the outermost territories), (iii) they are capable of causing major detrimental impacts to biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services, (iv) actions can be taken to effectively prevent, minimise or mitigate their adverse impact, which means that they are moved from country to country primarily by human activities and they still have a significant area suitable for further spread within the EU. The amended prioritization process was first used to select 16 plant species which will now undergo a risk assessment under the aforementioned project.
Sources
EPPO Secretariat (2016-03).