(1)

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 (2) establishes, on the basis of a preliminary risk assessment, a list of high-risk plants, plant products and other objects.

(2)

Following a preliminary assessment, 34 genera and one species of plants for planting originating from third countries were provisionally included in the list set out in the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 as high-risk plants. That list includes the genus Alnus Mill.

(3)

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1213 (3) sets out the phytosanitary measures for the introduction into the Union territory of certain plants, plant products and other objects, which have been removed from the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019, but for which phytosanitary risks are not yet fully assessed. This is because one or more pests hosted by those plants, which are not yet in the list of Union quarantine pests of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 (4), may fulfil the conditions to be included in that list following a complete risk assessment.

(4)

On 19 June 2023, the United Kingdom (5) submitted to the Commission three requests for export to the Union of up to 2-year-old graftwood of Alnus cordata, Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incana, with a maximum diameter of 12 mm; up to 7-year-old bare-rooted plants for planting of Alnus cordata, Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incana, with a maximum diameter of 40 mm at the base of the stem; up to 2-year-old cell-grown plants of Alnus cordata, Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incana with a maximum diameter of 10 mm at the base of the stem; and up to 7-year-old rooted plants for planting in pots of Alnus cordata, Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incana, with a maximum diameter of 40 mm at the base of the stem (‘the specified plants’). Those requests were supported by the relevant technical dossiers.

(5)

On 11 December 2024, the European Food Safety Authority (‘the Authority’) adopted a scientific opinion regarding the risk assessment of the specified plants (6). The Authority identified Entoleuca mammata, Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora siskiyouensis as pests relevant for those plants, evaluated the risk mitigation measures described in the technical dossiers and estimated the likelihood of freedom of the specified plants from those pests.

(6)

On the basis of the opinion of the Authority, the phytosanitary risk arising from the introduction into the Union territory of the specified plants is considered to be reduced to an acceptable level, provided that appropriate measures are applied to address the risk of pests related to those plants.

(7)

The measures described by the United Kingdom in the dossiers are considered sufficient to reduce to an acceptable level the risk arising from the introduction into the Union territory of the specified plants. Those measures should therefore be adopted as phytosanitary import requirements to ensure the phytosanitary protection of the Union territory.

(8)

Consequently, the specified plants originating in the United Kingdom should no longer be considered high-risk plants. They should therefore be removed from the list of high-risk plants, plant products and other objects in the Annex to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019.

(9)

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(10)

Phytophthora ramorum (non-EU isolates) is listed as a Union quarantine pest in Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, and Entoleuca mammata is listed as a protected zone quarantine pest in Annex III to that Regulation. Phytophthora siskiyouensis is not yet included in the list of Union quarantine pests. A complete pest risk assessment of Phytophthora siskiyouensis needs to become available, to determine whether that pest is to be listed in Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, and whether as a consequence the specified plants, originating in the United Kingdom, together with the relevant specific requirements, are to be listed in Annex VII to that Regulation. Therefore that pest should be subject to the measures of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1213, in relation to the plants referred to in the request of the United Kingdom, until that complete risk assessment is carried out.

(11)

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1213 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(12)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee for Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,