Brussels, 21/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - In her opinion in case C-383/09, delivered on 20 January, Advocate General Juliane Kokott recommended that the Court determine that France had not met its obligations under the terms of the Habitats directive by failing, in 2008, to take all necessary action to protect the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus, also known as the Black-bellied Hamster or Common Hamster) in Alsace - the only region of France where this animal is to be found in the wild.
The Commission brought an action in 2009, having formed the view that the measures taken by France to protect this species in 2008 had been inadequate. According to the Commission, the European hamster, which has been a protected species since 1993, faces imminent extinction in Alsace, where its numbers fell from 1,167 in 2001 to somewhere between 161 and 174 in 2007. The number required for the viability of the species is 1,500. Blame for the decline in numbers is laid at the door of farming practices and urban development which affect the animals feeding and their reproduction and rest areas.
The Advocate General, while, like the Commission, acknowledging France's efforts in these areas to protect the hamsters' habitat, decided that agri-environmental measures were insufficient in 2008, covering only 60% of the area inhabited by the species and excluding all areas except those for priority action and those where there is a strong likelihood of seeing a hamster or its burrows. She decided, similarly, that preventive measures to protect the species against deterioration of its habitat by urban planning projects and road infrastructure were insufficient. (F.G./transl.rt)