After fifteen years of harmonisation of phytosanitary measures in the European Union, today's legislation has become increasingly stagnant, complex and detailed. The recent finding of Potato spindle tuber viroid in ornamental plants in the Netherlands and other Member States illustrates the struggle to take prompt emergency measures when specific knowledge is not available. It is proposed that the European Commission should take the initiative to organise the process of pest risk analysis from beginning to end. In addition, the Commission should have budgets at their disposal for instantaneous research to generate the required data and fill in knowledge gaps. Such policy enables evaluation of emergency measures and implementation of permanent requirements on the basis of scientific data within a short period, thereby creating a dynamic legislation that focuses on real pest risks.
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Hoop et al. (2008) studied this question.
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