On Tuesday 12 May, a coalition of environmental NGOs warned against the risk of weakening Europe’s ecological safeguards following the launch by the European Commission of a public consultation on the effectiveness of the Birds and Habitats Directives, the contributions from which will feed into a stress test of the two texts (see EUROPE 13867/16).
The official aim of this consultation, open for twelve weeks, is to “reduce the administrative burden” on businesses and public authorities. However, the ‘Hands Off Nature’ coalition, which includes BirdLife Europe, ClientEarth, the European Environmental Bureau and WWF EU, believes that it could pave the way for the dismantling of essential environmental protections.
The NGOs point out that the European directives protect the forests, wetlands, rivers and coastal ecosystems that shield communities from floods, droughts and wildfires, while securing clean water, healthy soils and pollination for food production.
“If Europe weakens its nature laws, people will pay the price – through higher disaster costs, worsening health impacts and the destruction of the ecosystems our economy depends on”, warns the coalition in a press release. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)