Coordinate efforts on EU invasive species

An ambitious move by the European Union to eradicate, or at least contain, 37 invasive alien species across the region may fail if Member States do not coordinate their efforts. Despite calls for the establishment of a coordinating authority and the recognition of the cost-effectiveness of such a body, the European Parliament had little appetite to fund another centralized regulatory body. It thus elected to establish only a legal framework without a dedicated body or resources to oversee its implementation. As a result, Member States will have to proceed alone or make ad hoc arrangements with their neighbors when implementing the new regulations. Given that many of the invasive alien species occur in more than one Member State and can easily spread across national borders (“Red squirrels rising,” E. Stokstad, News Feature, 10 June, p. 1268), eradication and management plans must be coordinated at a regional scale to ensure that no Member State undermines its neighbors by failing to effectively manage species in its own territory