As the political biodiversity push falters, legal enforcement continues

Last week (13 March) the European Commission published its latest list of infringement proceedings against Member States. Most of the alleged failures to implement EU environmental law concern the bloc’s biodiversity rules.

At a time when the aims of the Green Deal are facing a backlash from the European right, some political leaders, and farmers, the Commission is moving against Germany, Slovenia, Ireland, Cyprus, and Bulgaria for alleged failures to comply with European environmental law.

The infringement procedure has four stages. In the first stage, the Commission requests more information from the country concerned. If the EU executive, is not satisfied with the country’s explanation, it sends a formal request to comply with the specific EU law.

If the member state fails to comply, the case is referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Finally, if the Court agrees that an infringement has been committed, the Commission may ask the CJEU to impose sanctions.

Most of the announced environmental law infringement proceedings concern the Birds and Habitats Directives, described by the Commission as the cornerstones of EU biodiversity policy.

The Birds Directive

The Commission formally wrote to Germany for allegedly failing to implement the directive’s requirements to protect wild birds and their habitats. The Commission asserts that the country has failed to designate the most appropriate territories as ‘Special Protection Areas’, for five bird species.

The German environmental NGO, NABU, told Euractiv that the birds mentioned in the infringement are grassland birds, such as the skylark and the cuckoo.

A recent academic study estimated that 800 million birds have disappeared from the European continent in the last 40 years. The study attributes this mainly to human activities such as reduced forest cover, urban spread, the intensification of agriculture, and temperature changes.

Questioned by Euractiv, Anouk Puymartin, Policy Manager at BirdLife Europe, argued that “this directive, which dates back to 1979, is all too rarely properly implemented.”

Puymartin believes it is crucial, that the Commission enforces this legislation more actively.

Berlin has two months to respond and remedy the shortcomings identified by the Commission.

The Habitats Directive

The Habitats Directive aims to ensure thousands of animal and plant species, and their different habitat types, are maintained or restored to a ‘favourable conservation status’ within the EU.

Adopted in 1992, the directive aims to restore biodiversity at a time when 80% of Europe’s habitats are in a poor state.

The Commission sent a warning to Slovenia, for failing to comply with, both the habitats and birds directives, citing a claimed deterioration of certain protected habitats in ‘Natura 2000’ protected areas.

The Slovenian environmental NGO, DOPPS,  points to practices such as intensive meadow management, and the elimination or degradation of hedges and woody vegetation, driving a 42.8% reduction in farmland birds.

Referrals to the Court of Justice of the EU

Ireland is being referred by the Commission to the CJEU, because the country has not sufficiently protected its peat bogs.

Havens of biodiversity and real carbon storage sites, peat bogs are classified as ‘priority’ habitats under the Habitats Directive. Member states are required to protect them from damaging activities.

Peat (an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation found in wetlands) continues to be exploited in Ireland mainly as a cheap fuel, but also, for horticulture.

Even though peat extraction is now a small-scale activity, protected sites continue to be degraded by drainage and harvesting activities, and the measures taken to restore them are insufficient, according to the Commission.

When contacted by Euractiv Pádraic Fogarty, an Irish environmentalist, criticised the fact that “politicians have been mostly reluctant to champion bog protection.”

As reported in The Irish Times, the Irish government responded by stating that their peatland restoration programme is being stepped up “with an extremely large area under active restoration.”

Europe too slow

The number of active cases at the end of each year for nature protection infringements has accelerated since the von der Leyen Commission took office in 2019.

But NGOs fear that the situation will deteriorate if the next Commission eases enforcement of European environmental rules.

In its manifesto for the June European elections, the NGO BirdLife calls for “much greater transparency and speed in procedures” and asks the Commission to invest more in implementation and compliance.

A similar view is expressed by Pádraic Fogarty, who deplores the fact that it has taken 13 years for legal action to be initiated, since the Commission’s first warnings to Ireland.

Given the urgency of the climate situation, and the speed at which biodiversity is collapsing, the reaction time of the European institutions is far too slow for the ecologist and expects very little from Europe.

Furthermore, even if the Court rules against Ireland, “politicians are not afraid of the fines that might arise from a negative ruling,” concludes Pádraic Fogarty.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Rajnish Singh]

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