Public consultation on Birds and Habitats Directives
06 May 2015
The European Commission has recently launched a new public consultation addressing the Birds and Habitats Directives. Through an online public questionnaire, the consultation requests interested individuals and organisations across Europe to give their views on the future of EU nature legislation, as part of a broader Fitness Check.Interested parties are invited to answer, among others, whether the directives have met their nature conservation objectives, whether the associated social and economic benefits are appreciated and, if so, whether they are doing so at a reasonable cost. The consultation will run for twelve weeks and is accessible here.
Background:
ESPO, acknowledging the importance of the Birds and Habitats directives, published in 2007 its Code of Practice on the birds and habitats directive setting guidelines and recommendations for port development projects. Furthermore, ESPO has been closely cooperating with DG Environment and all involved stakeholders in the development of guidelines for the interpretation and application of the directives in estuaries and inland waters, a very constructive exercise with a valuable outcome.
Undoubtedly, all this work helped and ports nowadays have developed clever management tools to cope with challenges in an efficient and collaborative way. There are many examples of successful port development projects that achieved both the economic and environmental objectives, also being recognized by environmental NGOs.
For more information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEX-15-4917_en.htm