A spatio-temporal dataset of plant pests' first introductions across the EU and potential entry pathways

World trade has greatly increased in recent decades, together with a higher risk of introducing non-indigenous pests. Introduction trends show no sign of saturation, and it seems likely that many more species will enter and establish in new territories in the future. A key challenge in analysing pest invasion patterns is the paucity of historical data on pest introductions. A comprehensive dataset of pests' introductions in the EU, including their spatial occurrences, is not currently available and information is scattered across different sources or buried in the scientific literature. Therefore, we collected pests' introduction information (e.g., year, host) from online scientific databases and literature; we then gathered primary spatial data related to the site of first introductions. Finally, we identified the potential pathways of entry for each pest. The dataset contains expert-revised data on 278 pests introduced in the EU between 1999 and 2019, alongside their spatial occurrence and potential pathways of entry, providing a basis to better understand the factors associated with the likelihood of pest introduction. It is important to note that this dataset does not contain the current distribution of the introduced pests, but only records of their first introduction in the EU.