On 1 June 2018, the Interregional Parliamentary Council (ICC) issued a recommendation concerning invasive plants and animal species in the Greater Region, following the meeting of Committee 4 “Environment and Agriculture” on 27 April 2018 in Remerschen, Luxembourg.

Original document

• Recommandation-CPI-C4_1.6.18
• Empfehlung-IPR-K4_1.6.18

Excerpt of the recommendations (translated)

The Interregional Parliamentary Council

1. calls for consistency in the implementation of management measures and objectives (eradication, control, containment) and further exchanges on management methods and priority intervention sites for efficient use of resources;
2. strongly emphasises the need for coordinated prevention and control actions throughout the Greater Region, on a cross-border basis;
3. invites all partners in the Greater Region to draw up an exhaustive inventory of public and private bodies responsible for implementing research and methods to combat invasive species;
4. proposes to support existing mechanisms, such as www.neobiota.lu, for the exchange of information on control methods and the sharing of good practices that have proved effective;
5. calls for citizens to be informed about the presence of invasive plant and animal species in the Greater Region, the related health and economic risks, and the preventive measures to be taken to protect themselves;
6. hopes that professionals selling seeds, landscape gardeners and farmers will be made aware of this approach in order to encourage the use of local plant species;
7. recommends systematic reporting, the development of common tools for identifying and monitoring the most widespread species in the Greater Region, the introduction of monitoring and early detection of the most dangerous species (warning network) and the development of exchanges of good practice at cross-border level;
8. encourages the control of invasive plants by innovative methods that respect the environment, such as eco-grazing techniques;
9. hopes that the problem of invasive alien species will be included in school biology courses in order to encourage responsibility from an early age;
10. stresses the principle of proportionality in order to safeguard animal welfare as far as possible, to take account of the cost-effectiveness of the measures put in place and of environmental protection, in particular by avoiding excessive use of pesticides to combat invasive plants;
11. calls on the competent authorities to guarantee sustainable sources of funding to run cross-border networks. In this context, European funds are a very interesting financial lever, as shown by the INTERREG V project “InvaProtect, Protection durable des végétaux contre les bioagresseurs invasifs dans les orchgers et les vignes” ; a second project being set up, which aims to provide scientific and technical support to administrations and institutions for the assessment and management of the health risk associated with invasive mosquitoes;
12. hopes that the implementation of INTERREG projects on invasive alien species will be encouraged in the Greater Region;
13. welcomes other ongoing projects funded by the EU which make it possible to increase citizens’ awareness and involvement in concrete terms, such as the COST action ‘Increasing understanding of alien species through citizen science’, in which France and Luxembourg are participating, particularly as citizen participation and empowerment are the best way of controlling the negative effects of these invasive alien species;
14. calls for closer cooperation between the Greater Region Summit and the Interregional Parliamentary Council to combat invasive plant and animal species as effectively as possible.

The Interregional Parliamentary Council addresses this resolution:

• to the Government of the French Republic
• to the Grand East Region
• to the Saarland Government
• to the Government of the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate
• to the Governments of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation
• to the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
• at the Secretariat of the Summit of the Greater Region