Crown rust on oat was a wide‐spread disease in Europe in 1990–1994. High or moderate incidence of the disease was recorded in Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia and Slovakia. There were considerable differences in the disease resistance index to crown rust among lines, ranging from 13 to over 180. The highest resistance indexes were found mainly in those lines that had highly effective resistance in the seedling stage. The most resistant lines were Pc‐68, Pc‐58, Rodney ABDH, Rodney E, Pc‐50–2, Pc‐59 and Pc‐39, all of which had a disease resistance index of 170 or higher. Virulence phenotypes of P. coronata f. sp. avenae, with different combinations of virulence on resistant lines, were identified in twelve European countries and Israel. The resistance genes Pc‐39, Pc‐55, Pc‐58 and Pc‐68 were effective against all pathotypes. Genes such as Pc‐48, Pc‐50–2, Pc‐50–4, Pc‐54–1 and Pc‐59, however, are of importance for the European crown rust resistance breeding of oat.