BACKGROUND:

In the EU plant health is a key factor for sustainable and competitive agriculture, horticulture and forestry. The former regulatory framework for plant health within the EU was aimed to protect European agriculture and forestry by preventing the entry and spread of foreign pests. It was unique in that it is an open regime. However, it was criticized for being unable to stop the increased influx of dangerous new pests caused by globalization of trade. The already per se meaningful importance of the plant health risks is currently conditioned and potentially impaired in a globalized trading scenario and the current and future climate change context.
The present scenario will involve higher temperature, lower water availability and other associated changes in agri-food systems.

This will entail the emergence of new plant health risks and the growing incidence and spread of present ones in many cases. The new Regulation focuses particularly on the prevention of entry or spread of plant pests within the EU. It takes a more proactive approach involving prevention and eradication, providing special phytosanitary actions prescribed for Priority Pests, being them twenty of those pests do not present in the EU, or, if present, just in small areas and under official control.

Full scope of secondary legislation accompanying import check demands some preparation on side of NPPOs. These provision force NPPO to prior readiness to enable smooth procedures as well as contingency plans.

The main objective of the training is to provide a clear, comprehensive, and harmonised understanding of the key elements for plant health regulation in the EU, specifically on contingency planning, on simulation exercises and on action plans for priority pests, focusing on the development, during the time of each workshop, of a simulation exercise.
Furthermore, it should allow the exchange of information and experience amongst MS and increase the efficacy of plant health actions.

PROFILE PARTICIPANTS:

The training course is mainly addressed to all official staff of Member States involved in Plant Health, including those performing official controls and other official activities such as:

• Staff of the national, regional and local competent authority/ies directly involved in carrying out inspections and enforcing controls.
• Staff of the competent authority/ies which are involved in the controls of imported products.
• The participants must be able to communicate in the English language and agree to actively disseminate the contents of the training course.
• Be compromised to disseminate the knowledge gained (courses, workshops, articles, blogs) in the short medium term once the training ends