The European Commission (EC) is preparing a draft to amend the current phytosanitary requirements for the bacterium Huonglongbing (HLB) or the citrus' Yellow Dragon in Europe.
The government was responding to a question from Labour MEP Valencia Vicent Garces on EC measures to prevent the entry of this pest in the continent due to citrus imports from affected areas such as the United States, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The Commission said that, "given that the greening bacterium of the genus Citrus and its vectors (the insects that spread the Yellow Dragon plague) are subject to quarantine in the European Union, their introduction in the EU is prohibited" and therefore "we haven't detected their presence."
The Commission added that the fruit of infected plants from third countries may be imported into the EU provided it has been subjected to phytosanitary inspection, accompanied by the appropriate certificate and doesn't have leaves or stems, in addition, the packaging should have the appropriate brand of origin.
Spain recently warned about the review of those health measures after having developed an analysis of the risk of pests that provided new data on the identity of the causative agent of the citrus' Yellow Dragon, their host range and their vectors.
