Terms of reference

Following the EU plant health regulation, Member States shall carry out regular surveys for plant pests listed as Union quarantine pests, (EU 2016/2031, Article 22). However, the regulation further states that: 

“Those surveys shall not be required to be carried out for pests for which it is unequivocally concluded that they cannot become established or spread in the Member State concerned due to its ecoclimatic conditions or to the absence of the host species.”

It is currently uncertain whether the ecoclimatic conditions or host availability in Sweden allow an establishment of some of the quarantine pests. SLU Risk Assessment of Plant Pests was therefore requested by the Swedish Board of Agriculture to make a quick assessment of a selection of quarantine pests with regard to the pests’ likelihood of establishment in Sweden.