The call for contributions launched by the European Commission at the end of July for ‘omnibus’ environmental legislation (see EUROPE 13686/9) received almost 196,118 messages in the last few weeks before it closed on Wednesday 10 September.
Behind the excitement is a coalition of NGOs including BirdLife, ClientEarth, the EEB and the WWF. The latter launched a 10-day campaign called #HandsOffNature to invite European citizens to show their support for nature.
The campaign urged the European Commission not to roll back European nature protection laws under the guise of simplification. “We need stronger implementation and enforcement, not dismantling or weakening”, say the NGOs.
The coalition points out that, to date, the Commission’s call for contributions indicates that 119,543 opinions have been sent because “some contributions collected through the #HandsOffNature campaign are still being processed by the European Commission and will be published in the upcoming days“.
The aim of the NGO campaign was to counterbalance industry’s demands for simplification.
The effort proved successful, given that the statistics available on the call for contributions indicate that over 97% of responses came from European citizens.
The European Commission’s proposal is expected this autumn. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)