Brussels, 02/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 February, environmental NGOs were extremely pleased to hear the European Parliament arguing that rather than revise the “habitats” and “nature” directives as envisaged by the European Commission, the EU should improve implementation of these two key areas of legislation for the protection of biodiversity.
MEPs unambiguously delivered this message by adopting by a large majority (592 votes in favour, 52 against, with 10 extensions), the own initiative report by Mark Demesmaeker (ECR, Belgium) on the midterm review of the EU's biodiversity strategy. By so doing, the EP is perfectly online with the point of view argued by the Environment Council last December (see EUROPE 11456).
Parliament recognises that unless it significantly steps up its efforts, the EU will not attain the objective it set itself to halt the loss of biodiversity and restore it as much as its services working on ecosystems can by 2020. The EP resolution emphasises that if the targets set out in the European biodiversity strategy are not met, it will cost the EU at least €50 billion a year.
“Biodiversity provides numerous valuable ecosystem services on which we are extremely dependant, such as clean air, clean water and pollination. We therefore need to highlight that investing in nature is also a necessity from a socio-economic point of view”.
Parliament believes that the habitats and birds directives are “emblematic examples of smart legislation. Revising them under cover of 'better regulation' could undermine implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy and create a period of legal uncertainty. This could lead to weaker legal protection and less funding, which would be bad for nature, citizens and enterprise.”
MEPs particularly regret the lack of funding, implementation of the two directives and the lack of coherence in certain policies, such as agricultural and energy policies and the species and habitats conservation and restoration targets up to 2020. They are therefore calling on the Commission to put forward a new legislative proposal on environmental inspections, which could help improve monitoring and prevent infringements to EU environmental legislation.
They also point out that in 2012, only 58% of Natura 2000 sites were the subject of management plans and that the management of these sites cost the EU at least €5.8 billion a year, whilst bringing in between €200-300 billion a year in environmental and socio-economic benefits.
To improve implementation of these two directives, there are calling for the utmost respect and proportionate, efficient and dissuasive sanctions on those contravening them. They are also calling for an EU strategy against pollinators, in an effort to tackle the negative impact from farming on nature and biodiversity and by creating cross-border corridors for certain wild species.
They also are calling on the European Commission to present a proposal on the development of a green trans-European infrastructure network by 2017.
NGOs on cloud nine. The vote at the European Parliament was welcomed by the WWF and, Andreas Baumüller, speaking on behalf of the organisation in Brussels, said in a press release that “we are happy that the whole of the Parliament listened to more than 1 million citizens and governments that support the European nature protection directives”.
The Birdlife NGO also welcomed the emphasis placed by Parliament on full implementation and appropriate funding for the two directives. It did have fears that the ongoing European Commission health check could lead to it being weakened. Ariel Brunner from Birdlife Europe stated: “Parliament sent out an unequivocal message to Mr Timmermans and Mr Vella: you do not have a mandate for reopening the birds and habitats directives but you do have a strong mandate for applying them”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)