They insist that the Birds and Habitats Directives should remain unchanged and efforts should be directed towards better implementation of the directives. The same position was stated by representatives of the seven largest political groups in the European Parliament on Thursday.
“The European Union is far from achieving the objectives for 2020 (the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 aiming to halt biodiversity loss – editor's note) ... We believe the main problem is not the legislation but rather its implementation. That is why we are against the revision of the directives. Changing them would threaten the full implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy and would lead to a long period of legal uncertainty as well as a possible weakening of the legislation.”, says the letter.
“This is a historic moment clearly showing that the member states and the European Parliament consider the protection of the European environmental legislation a vital issue.”, says Geneviève Pons-Deladrière, director of the WWF European Policy Office, who has discussed the preservation of Natura 2000 with Ivelina Vasileva, Minister of Environment and Water, earlier this month. “Every attempt at changing a legislation tool, which has proved its effectiveness when administered and funded properly, must be stopped.”, says Deladrière.
“It does make sense for Bulgaria to support the call of the nine member states. Among these are the countries with the largest total area included in Natura 2000.”, comments Katerina Rakovska, expert “Protected areas” WWF Bulgaria. “Natura 2000 covers nearly 34% of the territory of Bulgaria, which puts us second to Slovenia in Europe in terms of size of the network, therefore we are among those most interested in its preservation and proper implementation.”
“Natura 2000 is one of the few recognized, effective, supranational instruments for environmental protection in the world”, says Vesselina Kavrakova, head of WWF Bulgaria. “The network is one of the greatest achievements of the European Union, which ensures cross-border protection of forests, rivers, plants and animals and thus provides resources and healthy environment for the European community. This model is a chance for Europe and an opportunity for the rest of the world, therefore it is very important to be supported and developed”, explains Kavrakova.
This year the EC has launched a “Fitness Check study”, an assessment whether Natura 2000 directives need to be changed. More than 520,000 European citizens have taken part in the first stage of the process, a record number of people for a public consultation in the EU. They have demanded that the EC should not revise the directives and instead should improve their implementation. The interim report on biodiversity, whose reporters have signed a letter to the EC, will be voted in the European Parliament in December. The final decision, whether the directives would be revised or not, is going to be taken by the member states in June 2016.
Nine European countries support environmental laws in EU
