In May 2013, the European Commission published a package of measures to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain and, as part of that, a proposal for the new plant health package. The purpose of the upgraded EU plant health regime is to combat new pests from establishing themselves in EU territory, as well as to reduce the risk of pests spreading once established within the EU.
The approach taken in the plant health regime is wrong: The EU model of agriculture is more and more often based on vulnerable, unhealthy and not robust agricultural systems containing sensitive varieties, very limited crop rotations (if any at all), a lack of beneficial organisms, and biodiversity declining in general. That makes relatively easy for exotic plants and animals to establish themselves as there is almost no resistance.
Prevention rather than cure: In the impact assessment it was explained that: ‘In agriculture, the introduction and spread of new pests and diseases nearly always leads to an enhanced use of pesticides so as to maintain previous production levels.’ But this is only the case for vulnerable systems entirely dependent upon synthetic pesticides.