Brussels, 13/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to cross another stage in the infringement proceedings initiated against Germany, which continues in its failure to comply with Directive 93/43/EEC concerning the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora.
Germany will receive a reasoned opinion (second stage in the procedure under Article 226 of the Treaty) for not having safeguarded the habitats of an endangered species of hamster, the cricetus cricetus. The Commission considers that intensive farming and the construction of a cross-border industrial site in Horbacher Börde, near Aix La Chapelle, close to the Dutch border, will be a threat to one of the three most important sites in north-western Germany for the reproduction of these hamsters. The Habitats Directive bans the deterioration and the destruction of breeding sites or resting places of a certain number of animal species whose conservation is of importance for the Community. The cricetus cricetus, whose population has greatly declined throughout Central Europe, is one of these species.