New Action Plan to help regions defend biodiversity and reap the economic benefits of nature protection

On 27 April 2017, the European Commission adopted a new Action Plan to improve the protection of nature and biodiversity in the EU, for the benefit of its citizens and the economy.

The Plan consists of 15 actions to be carried out by 2019 to rapidly improve the implementation of the Birds and Habitats Directives, which are the EU's flagship nature policies.

The Nature Directives (Birds Directive (1979) and Habitats Directive (1992)) are the cornerstone of the EU's biodiversity policy. They were subject to a 'Fitness Check' which provided an overall performance evaluation of their effectiveness and efficiency as part of the Commission's Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme.