Mandates & Missions
The NRL Plant Health is the technical contact for the Ministry of Agriculture. It supports public policy and works with approved laboratories.
Mandates
The Plant Health Regulation (EU) 2016-2031 aims to prevent the introduction and/or spread of harmful organisms (or pests) within the EU. It is complemented by Implementing Regulation 2019-2072, which establishes a list of pests categorised as quarantine pests and regulated non-quarantine pests.
GEVES was designated as the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Plant Health in 2020 by the French Ministry of Agriculture (decree of 28 October 2020 amending the decree of 29 December 2009, since replaced by the decree of 30 March 2023 (modified by the decree of 15 july 2025) designating the national reference laboratories in the field of veterinary and plant health).
Diversified mandates
The mandates carried out by GEVES concern the detection of regulated non-quarantine organisms (RNQOs) on seeds, strawberry plants, asparagus claws and Allium bulbs. More specifically, they concern the detection of:
- Regulated non-quarantine bacteria on true seeds (except Clavibacter michiganensis insidiosus)
- Pepino mosaïc virus on tomato seeds; Tomato brown rugose fruit virus on tomato and chilli pepper/bell pepper seeds and leaves; Tobacco ringspot virus soyabean seeds
- Regulated non-quarantine fungi on true seeds, strawberry plants, asparagus claws and Allium bulbs
- Regulated non-quarantine nematodes on true seeds, strawberry plants and Allium bulbs (except Longidorus elongatis, L. attenuatus, L. macrosoma, Xiphinema diversicaudatum).
- Regulated bruches not subject to quarantine of true seeds
In total, these mandates represent 59 pathosystems corresponding to 39 pests on 21 different plant species.
*According to the decree of 30 March 2023 (modified by the decree of 15 July 2025) designating national reference laboratories in the field of veterinary and phytosanitary public health.
Missions
On NRL mandates in plant health, GEVES:
- Monitors scientific and technical developments relating to plant pests
- Develops, characterises and proposes reliable detection methods for official use
- Conducts official analyses in support of public policy
- Provides technical support to networks of accredited laboratories by conducting training courses, organising interlaboratory proficiency testing (ILC) and supplying reference materials
The technical unit for detecting pests, which brings together the SNES pathology laboratory, the SNES physical analysis laboratory and the BioGEVES detection centre, constitutes the NRL plant health unit and provides a genuine centre of technical expertise.
