Directive 2000/29/EC  listed the EU quarantine pests to be targeted by specific control measures. They were listed in annexes I and II (Part A, Section I and II). Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2017/1279 and Commission Implementing Directive (EU) 2019/523 amended Directive 2000/29/EC.

Directive 2000/29/EC was repealed on 14 December 2019 and was replaced by Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 ("Plant Health Law") of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning protective measures against pests of plants.

According to Article 5(2) of the Plant Health Law, the Commission establishes the ‘list of Union quarantine pests’, which is included in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 of 28 November 2019. The list of Union quarantine pests is available in Annex II of this Regulation. In addition, Annex IV contains the list of Union regulated non-quarantine pests (‘RNQPs’). Annexes of the Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 are now amended by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/2285 of 14 December 2021.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1941 of 13 October 2022 prohibit the introduction, movement, holding, multiplication or release of Chloridea virescens, Leucinodes orbonalis, Leucinodes pseudorbonalis, Resseliella citrifrugis and Spodoptera ornithogalli, which are not included in the annexes of Regulation (EU) 2021/2285, but are considered to present a high phytosanitary risk for the Union territory. 

Article 6(2) of the Plant Health Law empowers the Commission to establish a list of the priority pests. Published in the Official Journal on 11 October 2019, the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1702 lists 20 quarantine pests as priority pests, 16 of which are insects.