1. Plant Health EURL
EURLs Directors Meeting 2nd December 2016, Brussels, Belgium DG HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY

2. State of art
- Creation of new European Reference Laboratory(ies) in support of plant health to promote uniform practices for development/use of relevant methods
- Possibility foreseen under the draft Official Controls Regulation

3. Scope of protection Pests are grouped as follows:
There are over 250 pests regulated in the annexes of Directive 2000/29/EC and emergency measures
Pests are grouped as follows:
Insects, mites and nematodes
Bacteria
Fungi
Viruses and virus-like organisms

4. Mapping data of current state of art in Member States
SK sent a questionnaire to Member States

5. Challenges for EURLs for Plant Health (1)
NEW, diagnostics in plant health not addressed at EU level
Number of pests (over 250)
Often different substrates (hosts) for the same pest
Use of diverse diagnostic methods
morphological
ELISA, PCR, LAMP, next generation sequencing
Combination of the above

6. Challenges for EURLs for Plant Health (2)
Validated diagnostic methods for a big number of pests
Lack of methods at national level (percentage of Member States answering the SK questionnaire)

7. Challenges for EURLs for Plant Health (3)
Accreditation of National Laboratories

8. Timeline for Creation of the New Plant Health EURLs
Adoption of Official Control Regulation, spring 2017
Adoption of Delegated act, in 2017
Call for selection, adoption of Implementing act in 2018
Activities expected to start in 2019