55^th Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products

Tashkent, 2025-06/03/05

 

This Working Party on Plant Protection Products oversees the technical work of the EPPO Panels related to Plant Protection Products (PPPs). It meets once a year to draw up their programmes subject to the approval of the Council and assign specific tasks to Panels of experts.

 

The 55th meeting of the Working Party on PPPs took place in Tashkent, on 2025-06-03/05. The Working Party was opened by Mr Ergashev, Director of the Agency of the Plant Protection and Quarantine of the Republic of Uzbekistan and by Ms Tikka EPPO Director-General. It was attended by the EPPO Scientific Officers Mr Lucchesi and Mr Martínez Pérez, 17 country representatives from 14 EPPO countries and 2 observers: an industry representative (CropLife Europe) and a European Commission representative (DG SANTE).

 

Special thanks are due to Mr Ergashev and Mr Sultanov and colleagues from the Agency of Plant Protection and Quarantine for their warm hospitability and excellent organisation of this meeting, and technical visits to the Republican Centre for Agrochemical Analysis and the Agency of Plant Protection and Quarantine. During the 2nd technical visit, Ms Arifxanova gave a presentation on the pesticide control system in Uzbekistan with reference to the recently established database ‘list of registered plant protection products’.

 

The major points discussed at the meeting are summarised below.

 

Photos from the Working Party meeting.

 

EPPO Standards for approval 

The Working Party on PPPs has recommended that 14 Standards in the PP1 series related to the efficacy evaluation of plant protection products, including both revised and new Specific and General Standards, are submitted to the Executive Committee as proposals for Council approval. If approved by the EPPO Council in September 2025, they will be published in the EPPO Bulletin and included in the EPPO database on PP1 Standards.

 

Revised specific Standards

PP 1/002 Phytophthora infestans on outdoor potato and tomato

PP 1/048 Migratory root nematodes

PP 1/085 Thrips on arable crops in outdoor conditions

PP 1/144 Reduction of lodging in cereals and maize

PP 1/314 Evaluation of mating disruption techniques against Lepidopteran pests in grapevine, pome and stone fruits under field conditions

 

New specific Standards

Spodoptera spp. in vegetables, strawberries and ornamentals

Spodoptera frugiperda in maize

Weevils in sugar beet

Efficacy evaluation of herbicides in the case of split applications

 

Revised general Standards 

PP 1/242 Taint tests

PP 1/243 Effects of PPP on transformation processes

PP 1/296 Principles of efficacy evaluation for PPP based on low-risk substances

 

New general Standards

Principles of effectiveness evaluation of PPP in a plant protection programme

Assessing the adverse effects of PPP on russeting

A new draft Standard on principles for conducting efficacy trials for PPP adjuvants in order to define their field of use was also on the agenda. It was sent back to the Panel on General Standards for further work, to better reflect the different national requirements for testing the efficacy of PPP adjuvants within the EPPO region.

 

Resistance to Plant Protection Products

The EPPO Database on Resistance Cases was presented to the meeting participants. This Database shares information about resistance cases including early detection of resistance cases, as well as resistance cases that occur only locally, if they are based on data. The Database, is available for EPPO member countries at https://resistance.eppo.int/. The Working Party was updated on the progress of submission and validation of resistance cases to the Database. More than 1 200 cases have been submitted, of which, approximately, 1 000 have been validated. Currently, 27 countries have nominated a contact point and those who have not nominated one were encouraged to do so. The Working Party agreed to allow cases found in peer-reviewed journals and recognised databases, for countries for which there is no contact point, to be entered while maintaining the current validation procedures.

 

Plant Protection Products Data Extrapolation

The EPPO extrapolation tables (pdf versions) have been developed since 2007 to be used in conjunction with the EPPO Standard PP 1/257 Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses. Since 2024, these tables were replaced by the new EPPO Database on PPP Data Extrapolation available at https://extrapolation.eppo.int/. This Database aims to provide a searchable tool to retrieve the extrapolation possibilities and make the information more accessible. The Database provides detailed lists of possible extrapolations for efficacy data, for regulatory authorities and applicants, in the context of the registration of plant protection products for minor uses. Improving the Database will continue, including extending the extrapolation possibilities to major uses according to PP 1/331 Principles of efficacy extrapolations for major uses that has been recently adopted.

 

Other topics and work programme

The Working Party also discussed future work on EPPO Codes to describe PPP uses, vegetation indices to be used in efficacy evaluation trials, the One Health approach and the future EPPO Strategic Plan. The Working Party was also updated on the activities of the European Minor Uses Coordination Facility. Mr Guliyev, Deputy Head within the Food Safety Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, presented the Plant Protection Products authorization system in Azerbaijan.

 

The Working Party discussed future activities and priorities which will be submitted, as part of EPPO’s Work Programme for 2026, to the EPPO Council in September 2025 for approval. In addition to proposals for new Standards or revision of existing ones, the Working Party agreed on a number of activities to improve the EPPO Database on PP1 Standards, following a survey for users of the database carried out over March and April 2025. In addition, awareness raising activities related to EPPO PPP activities were discussed, along with the possibility of organising webinars for member countries.

 

The next Working Party on Plant Protection Products is scheduled for 2026-06-09/11 (venue to be identified).