Bulgaria and the Netherlands revise Natura 2000?

This Bulgarian-Dutch initiative for revising the Habitats and Birds Directive poses very serious questions. The meeting was not a protocol, but a working one, and experts from both countries discussed concrete proposals for revising the two Natura 2000 Directives (Habitats Directive and Wild Birds Directive), and that in contradiction with the public moods in Bulgaria and in Europe! Bulgarian public is best acquainted with Natura 2000 in Europe, according to the last Eurobarometer data.

Green laws reminds that this year the functioning of the two Directives was tested for efficiency by the EC (the so-called fitness check of the Directives, including target consultations with stakeholders plus a questionnaire for public consultation). A discussion was conducted among all the stakeholder countries on the need for improving the texts of the two Directives and how this could help their implementation. There was a prevailing opinion in the discussion, that there was a need for a certain improving of the Directives, but that now was not a good time for that at all.

First – Natura 2000 network has acquired an integrity of sorts, and that in this last planning period the construction of its directing has begun, and so it is early to assess its functioning.

Second – opening the Directives for amendments and the discussion on them will cause additional delay of the completion of their construction and effective functioning. For this reason, in the course of the public consultations, more than 520,000 residents of the European Union assessed highly the Directives and insisted on a still better implementation of the Directives and adequate management in the Network local areas. Most European governments, including the German, have also clearly declared that there is no need at the moment for amendment of Habitats Directive and of Natura 2000, but that what is needed is their consistent and complete implementation.

It is puzzling that the official position of Bulgaria is not public and has not been subjected to whatsoever public discussion! Given that tens of thousands of Bulgarians took part in EC’s poll regarding the Directives and confirmed that their implementation is a priority, and not their amendment, it is unclear based on what the MEW suggests exactly the opposite! Similarly, a few years ago, a revision of the legislature regarding GMO was suggested, and only street protests saved Bulgaria from radical liberalization of our legislature regarding GMO!