Background and terms of reference

The European Commission has established a list of 20 priority pests (Commission Delegated regulation (EU) 2019/1702). The pests have been selected among the Union quarantine pests as the pests for which the potential economic, environmental and social impact is assessed to be the most severe in the EU.

For each priority pest Member States shall carry out annual surveys (article 24 in EU regulation 2016/2031). However, the regulation further states that:

“The 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.”

For some of the priority pests it is currently uncertain whether the ecoclimatic conditions or host availability in Sweden allow their establishment in whole or part of the country.

The Swedish Board of Agriculture has requested SLU Risk Assessment of Plant Pests to assess whether certain priority pests are able to establish in Sweden and further, when relevant, identify the area of potential establishment. This report provides the assessment of the potential establishment of Popillia japonica (EPPO code: POPIJA).