The Court of Justice of the European Union has imposed financial penalties (fines of €10 million and a daily penalty payment of €41,250) on Portugal for failing to comply with a previous judgment in September 2019 condemning the country for an infringement of the Habitats Directive (92/43) and the Birds Directive (2009/147), in a judgment handed down on Thursday 5 March (Case C-613/24).
In its judgment, the Court notes that the Portuguese authorities have still not complied with its first judgment, which condemned Portugal for failing to designate 61 Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in the pan-European ‘Natura 2000’ network and for failing to adopt the conservation measures required by EU law (see EUROPE 13345/35).
According to the European judge, the Portuguese legislation, which merely designates SCIs as SACs, without specifying either the types of natural habitats or the protected species present in each of them, remains insufficient to comply with the Habitats Directive. And Lisbon has still not adopted any appropriate precautionary measures.
Noting the persistence of these particularly serious infringements of EU environmental law, the Court imposes the above-mentioned financial penalties, including the daily penalty payment (€750 x 55 sites not protected to date), which will be maintained until the last of the 61 SACs concerned has been afforded adequate protection. A degressivity of €750 per day per SCI that has been brought into compliance will be introduced.
To see the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/l0x (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)