EUROPE
BPCA is a member of CEPA, the European pest management trade association. Its September newsletter covers access to pest management tools, rodent-borne disease research and a European food hygiene ruling. Here’s what these developments mean for pest professionals.
Brexit changed the UK’s relationship with EU regulation, but it did not remove our connection to the European chemicals market. Our CEPA membership helps keep us connected to these discussions and provides a route to raise the practical needs of UK pest management businesses.
Based on CEPA’s September 2026 newsletter.
Keeping effective tools available
CEPA President Marc Aubry has outlined four priorities for the association, covering regulatory representation, professional standards, recognition of pest management within One Health, and attracting and retaining skilled people.
On regulation, CEPA supports a science-based approach that balances sustainability with access to effective pest management tools. Its concern is that removing products without viable alternatives could create risks for public health and food safety.
CEPA’s position puts integrated pest management at the centre, combining prevention, monitoring, digital technology and non-chemical methods, while retaining chemical treatments where necessary as a last resort.
Aubry also highlights a familiar challenge for our sector. Successful prevention can be invisible, making it harder to demonstrate the value of the work pest professionals do.
Connecting rodent management and public health
The newsletter highlights ONE-LEP, a European research network bringing together expertise in leptospirosis and other rodent-borne threats.
Approved in May 2026, the network connects human, animal and environmental health through a One Health approach. Its work responds to challenges including rodenticide resistance, inconsistent disease surveillance and increasing expectations for humane rodent management.
Rodent ecology and management form part of its programme, including work on surveillance and environmental risk reduction.
For pest controllers, this is a development to follow. Recording rodent activity, site conditions and the results of interventions can help demonstrate how professional pest management contributes to disease prevention.
Food hygiene ruling puts results in focus
CEPA also reports on a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling involving Aldi in Belgium, following repeated findings of rodent traces in stores and a warehouse.
The case concerns food businesses’ obligations under EU hygiene legislation. CEPA highlights its implications for demonstrating effective pest management, rather than relying on the existence of a contract or HACCP plan alone.
For members servicing food premises, the practical message is to document findings, monitor trends, communicate outstanding actions and adjust control plans when problems recur.
CEPA links this focus on demonstrable results to EN 16636 and CEPA Certified, reinforcing the role of professional standards in planning, delivering and evidencing pest management.
Europe still important to UK pest management
Great Britain currently operates its own Biocidal Products Regulation (GB BPR), while Northern Ireland follows EU BPR. As we explained in our response to the European biocides review, European decisions also matter to manufacturers and distributors supplying products across borders, with potential consequences for the availability and cost of the tools we use.
That relationship could become closer. The Government intends to include biocides in negotiations for a UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, which it plans to introduce from mid-2027, subject to negotiations. HSE’s latest guidance says an agreement would likely require changes to active-substance approvals and product authorisations.
Source: