Luxembourg, 21/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - There was a great deal of wrangling between EU27 environment ministers on Monday 21 June in Luxembourg before they finally agreed to sign up to the EU strategy and objectives for containing the decline in biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystemic services, and, as far as it is possible, restoring these ecosystems by 2020. However, they came to this agreement at the price of a compromise. The Council endorses the strategy and considers that, together with its six targets, it is a key instrument to enable the EU to reach its overall 2020 headline target. It underlines, however, the need to discuss further on the action required to ensure effective and coherent implementation of the strategy. To put it clearly, objectives are no longer the focus of discussion, but the exchange will continue on implementation under Polish Presidency, which can but reassure the delegations (mainly France, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) which would have preferred to wait for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, the CAP and the EU budget to be finalised before taking a stance.
It is not so much the strategy in itself but rather the six accompanying targets - the state of conservation of species and habitats, preservation and restoring of ecosystems, zones covered by measures relating to biodiversity under CAP, measures linked to forests and fishing, and measures aimed at facing up to the threat of invasive foreign species - that posed problems for a number of delegations.
During the debate, France and Italy underlined that they could agree to the target for fishing, while Denmark expressed concern about the cost of the strategy and called for them to be realistic about things. Bulgaria did not understand how one could take commitments on a “favourable conservation status” when the current conservation status was not known. Italy had to call Rome before it could rally to the compromise.
In its conclusions, the Council welcomes the fact that the strategy responds to the main obstacles and threats that prevented the achievement of the 2010 target, including insufficient sectoral integration on biodiversity across EU policies (agriculture, fisheries, water, climate and energy, forests), inadequate financing, insufficient action in certain areas, gaps in scientific knowledge and a lack of data.
The Council welcomes the Commission's commitment to develop, with member states, a common framework for implementation of the strategy, with the participation of all players, sectors and institutions concerned at every level. It calls on the Commission and member sates to begin work on this.
The Council conclusions emphasise the need to develop and implement a methodology taking into account existing impact assessment processes to assess the impact of all relevant EU-funded projects, plans and programmes on biodiversity and ecosystems. It stresses the importance of identifying, reforming, reorienting and/or eliminating subsidies harmful to biodiversity. (A.N./transl.jl)