EU taking Germany to court for conservation law violations

The EU Commission is taking Germany to the European Court of Justice for years of violations of existing nature conservation law, according to FAZ. Among other things, Germany has still not designated a "significant number of areas as special protection areas," the Brussels-based authority announced on Thursday. At issue is the implementation of the Flora-Fauna-Habitat Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and the protection of wild fauna and flora.

The core is the designation of protected areas in the EU states. This includes so-called conservation objectives to protect or restore the population of species. The EU Commission had already initiated so-called infringement proceedings against Germany in 2015, but Berlin did not dispel the concerns over the years. In the process, the "deadline for completing the necessary measures for all areas in Germany" had already expired in some cases more than ten years ago, the EU Commission announced on Thursday.

The authority criticized, among other things, that "the conservation targets set for the individual sites in Germany are not sufficiently quantified and measurable." It said the EU Commission assumes that it has been the practice in all German states and at the federal level "not to set sufficiently detailed and quantified conservation objectives for all 4606 sites of community importance." This had a "significant impact on the quality and effectiveness" of the measures.