The Birds and Habitats Directives in the EU and future Member States
Nature conservation in the European Union is mainly based on the following two powerful pieces of binding legislation:
- The Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (the Birds Directive)
- The Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive)
All Member States of the EU have to transpose the provisions of these Directives into their national legislation and must ensure proper implementation and enforcement.
Why are the Directives so important?
BirdLife International considers the proper implementation of both the Birds and the Habitats Directive as essential in order to ensure the conservation of bird species, sites and habitats in the EU Member States in favourable conservation status and to fulfil the Gothenburg target of halting biodiversity decline by 2010, which was set by EU Heads of States and Governments.
What are the problems?
Unfortunately the implementation of both Directives has faced and is still facing many difficulties, ranging from delayed transposition into national legislation, insufficient classification of SPAs and designation of sites under the Habitats Directive (i.e. completion of the Natura 2000 network of sites), inadequate management of sites and species, unsatisfactory enforcement of legislation and insufficient monitoring and reporting.
What’s the role of BirdLife International?
BirdLife International, with its extensive knowledge and experience on bird species, sites and habitats (including their status and threats) sees its role in this context as:
- provider of relevant and reliable data, information and other input to European policy makers;
- “watchdog” to promote the full and correct implementation of the Directives at EU and national level;
- key stakeholder in shaping future policy developments to ensure that the Directives support effective conservation.
BirdLife coordinates and organises its work on the Birds and Habitats Directives through its Birds and Habitats Directives Task Force, where all Partners from EU Member States and candidate countries are represented.
2004 was the year of the 25th anniversary of the Birds Directive.
Contact
Useful Documents
- Brochure on the 25th anniversary of the Birds Directive (PDF, 324 KB)
- BirdLife's vision for the future of the Birds Directive (PDF, 147 KB)
- Report "Birds in the European Union: a status assessment" (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Agreement between BirdLife International and the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation of the EU (FACE) on the Birds Directive (PDF, 527 KB)
The case law of the Birds Directive – relevant judgements of the European Court of Justice
During the 25 years of the existence of the Birds Directive, various cases relevant to its interpretation have been brought before the European Court of Justice. Its rulings are highly important for the proper future application of the Directive and should guide the Member States in their decisions that might affect the status of wild bird species and their habitats across the EU. BirdLife International recognised the importance of these judgements and made an effort in compiling and analysing the implications of the relevant judgements for bird conservation. In September 2004, we published a document titled “Report on Birds Directive European Court of Justice cases with case summaries”, which gives a concise summary of each of these judgements. The publication is divided into three main parts:
- An Introduction section, mostly devoted to providing a detailed Article by Article overview of the Directive, explaining how the various cases relate to the provisions laid out in the Articles
- A Summary Table which is based on the European Commission, DG Environment Website, but which has been substantially enlarged and up-dated
- Individual Case Reports summarising the key points for the relevant cases
Click here to download the full document (PDF, 1 MB)