EU procedure on listing high-risk plants and plant products

Draft Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) supplementing Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the procedure to conduct the listing of high-risk plants, plant products and other objects

Update

The European Commission is defining a standardised procedure for deciding which plants, plant products, and other objects are classified as “high-risk” for plant health when imported into the European Union (EU). This Regulation does not itself designate any new products as high-risk, but explains how the EU will decide whether a product is classified as high-risk.

Impacted Products

Plants and plant products

What is changing?

The EU proposes to formalise and standardise how plants and plant products for import into the EU are classified as “high-risk”. Previously the decision-making process for this classification was not clearly defined in a single, transparent procedure.

With this proposed Regulation, the EU is establishing a structured, evidence-based, and faster process for identifying products that may present an unacceptable phytosanitary risk. EU Member States will propose commodities for listing, and decisions will be based on documented evidence including interception data, pest presence in exporting countries, trade patterns, and the effectiveness of existing risk-mitigation measures. A dedicated expert group involving EU Member States, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the European Commission will carry out a preliminary risk assessment before any decision is taken on listing.

Why?

These changes will ensure that decisions on high-risk plants and plant products are more consistent and more transparent, and that procedures are based on documented scientific and technical evidence.

Timeline

The Regulation is likely to be published in the second quarter of 2026, and will apply 20 days after publication.

What are the major implications for exporting countries?

The proposed change means that interceptions, surveillance data, and the demonstrated robustness of control systems in countries exporting to the EU will play a more decisive role in determining high-risk pest listings. Products associated with repeated interceptions due to pests during EU border controls, or insufficiently documented mitigation measures in exporting countries, are more likely to be listed, and action can be taken more rapidly, leading to a temporary import prohibition until a full risk assessment is completed. Rather than reacting on a case-by-case basis after problems occur, exporting countries will need to focus their efforts on preventing export of products problematic for plant health (and thereby interceptions), and on documenting evidence of the robustness and credibility of their plant health systems, to avoid trade disruptions.

Recommended Actions

Countries exporting to the EU are encouraged to provide feedback on this draft Regulation.

Stakeholders can give feedback via the European Commission’s Have Your Say webpage until 4 March 2026. Stakeholders wishing to respond must be registered. Those who do not already have an account will first need to Create an EU login account, then register their organisation on the EU Transparency register.

Background

Under the EU Plant Health Law (Regulation 2016/2031, Art. 42(3)), plants, plant products, and other objects identified as high-risk are provisionally listed in the Annex to Regulation 2018/2019, and their introduction into the EU is prohibited pending a risk assessment (see Provisional list of high risk plants explained). Regulation 2016/2031 (Art. 42(1a)) provides the legal basis for establishing clear, timely, and transparent rules for how high-risk products are identified and listed.

A review of the first five years of application of the EU Plant Health Law identified the need to clarify, simplify, and harmonise several plant health-related import procedures (Council of the EU 2024). Differences in implementation between EU Member States, administrative burdens, and the absence of clear procedures for issues such as high-risk listings, temporary derogations, and equivalence created uncertainty for both EU authorities and non-EU trading partners. (See Revision of EU Plant Health Law.)

EFSA et al. (2018) have published the information required for dossiers to support demands for import of high-risk plants.

Resources

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