The organizations representing the Spanish citrus sector (producers, trade unions and private traders), accompanied by their counterparts from other producing countries, took part on Thursday 23 June in the Citrus Market Prospects Group with officials of the Commission.
During the meeting, they unanimously protested the initiative of the Commission, presented to the Member States in the Plant Health section of the SCOPAFF, which opens the debate on the amendment of the annexes of Directive 2000/29 on plant health. They explained that, in the document released by the Commission, there is a proposal for changes that entail a step back in the protection of the phytosanitary safety of European citrus, increasing the risk of the spread of new and dangerous pests in the Union, which would cause very serious damage to the plantations.
The questioning of the citrus sector has focused in this case on two points:
• The Commission has placed emphasis on the introduction in Directive 2000/29 of the False Codling Moth or Thaumatotibia leucotreta, as had been demanded for years by the Spanish citrus sector (after recording almost 40 interceptions from South Africa alone in 2015 and 2014). For the sector, its inclusion is useless without requiring also a cold treatment. Spanish experts have pointed out that cold treatment is the only effective treatment, proportional to the existing risk and demanded also by other countries, such as the US or Japan, for all imports from countries where the pest is present, such as South Africa. They have expressed their opposition to the EU being less demanding in this regard.
• In the case of Citrus Canker and Black spot, the Commission proposes to include a special consideration in the Annex to the Directive for citrus fruit intended for processing into juice, which could benefit from less strict controls. A measure that has already been tested on a temporary basis, against the advice of experts and the Spanish sector, through the adoption of the Implementing Decision of the Commission (EU) 2016/715, and which they now wish to consolidate. In the eyes of producers, traders and European cooperatives, this proposal is also unacceptable. It treads on an unsafe, scientifically unfounded road and was already rejected in the past, since the risk of that fruit being diverted into the fresh market after entering the EU (because of better prices) is inadmissible.
The sector has criticised this initiative which, if it goes ahead, would be considered inexplicable and would be inconsistent with the agreement recently reached between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in favour of strengthening the EU's phytosanitary protection against the spread of pests from third countries.
This was denounced last week by several MEPs in the European Parliament, both through written questions submitted to the Commission and in speeches at the session of the Comagri, held on Monday 20 June.
The Commission has also been criticised about the opening of such discussions, instead of sticking to the conclusions of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which has recently published its evaluation of all new scientific evidence released since 2014 and has ratified its opinion, published in 2014, about the risk of the spread of Black spot in the EU; a report that should encourage the administrations to strengthen, and not relax, the protection systems in place since 2014.
Participants in the meeting have said they are confident that the Commission will dismiss such options and resume and strengthen the strategy set in 2014, ignoring the pressures from importers, traders or processors, as the safety of 600,000 hectares of European citrus plantations and everything that depends on them would be in jeopardy.