The Effectiveness of EU Nature Legislation: a long battle to secure supporting sectoral policies

Abstract

EFFECTIVENESS OF EU NATURE LEGISLATION FROM CONFLICTING TO SUPPORTING EU POLICIES – THE LONG BATTLE TO SECURE COHERENCE WITH EU NATURE LEGISLATION The European Union has been involved with the protection of wildlife and natural habitats for over thirty-five years, starting with the signature of the Bonn Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (23/06/1979) and the Bern Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats (19/09/1979). The Directive on the conservation of wild birds (hereaft er the Birds Directive) and the Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (hereaft er Habitats Directive) put the necessary legal framework for the coordinated implementation of these conventions in the Member States in place. The Habitats Directive provides for the establishment of the Natura 2000 network, a coherent network of sites selected on the basis of scientific criteria for the protection of species and habitats identified in application of the Habitats Directive or of the Birds Directive. The question of the effectiveness of the EU's nature legislation came to the forefront of the EU political agenda in 2014 with the launch of a European Commission “Fitness Check” on these two directives. The challenges of implementing the Nature Directives and of establishing the Natura 2000 network are no secret, with numerous conflicts being brought all the way up to the European Court of Justice. However, the timing and opportunity of launching a “Fitness Check” on the Nature Directives five years ahead of the EU Headline target of “Halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as is feasible while also stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss”, and less than five years aft er the adoption of the new Strategic Plan (2011-2020) of the Convention on Biological Diversity with the 20 Aichi Targets, has been questioned by many. With the mission letter from the new President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker calling on the Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella “to carry out an in-depth evaluation of the Birds and Habitats directives and assess the potential for merging them into a more modern piece of legislation”, NGOs have questioned the objectivity of the process.