Can the court save EU species?

Date: 19/01/06

Greece this month will face a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling over its failure to be nice enough to deadly vipers.

The European Commission has accused Greece of neglecting to protect the rare and venomous vipera schweizeri, a black snake found on the Mediterranean island of Milos.

According to the Commission, Athens has not done enough "to avoid any deliberate disturbance" of the viper and its habitat, especially when it is breeding and hibernating.

An ECJ decision expected on 26 January signals the latest alleged failure by a member state to apply EU nature protection laws, as set out in the 1992 habitats directive.

Under the directive, member states have to prevent a considerable list of seriously endangered species, from the Algerian hedgehog to the flying squirrel, from dying out altogether.

But more than one in three environm- ental infringements and complaints in the EU at the end of 2004 concerned the habitats and birds directives.

This so-called Natura legislation, set up to protect European biodiversity, has run into cultural as well as practical difficulties since its adoption 13 years ago.

The Commission last October took legal action against Finland for wolf hunting - a move that led to death threats for Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, according to the Finnish press.

Helsinki says hunting permits are only issued after careful consideration and that the practice is a national tradition.

A court judgement last year also ruled against traditional wild bird catching methods in Spain, to the dismay of rural communities.

A Commission official said a concerted effort from Brussels last year had led to a "significant reduction" in the number of open Natura infringements and complaints.

"In lots of the open cases nothing had been done for years, thanks to a lack of resources, but... [preliminary 2005 statistics] show a significant drop," he explained.

"The situation is still obviously far from ideal and the cases we closed last year were the easy ones. But I'm confident that by the end of this year we can see a further reduction."

The Commission is also this year expected to advise governments on applying the habitats directive to oceans, with marine guidelines due in the spring.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a conservation group, says the guidelines are long overdue and that the law is only being properly implemented for land sites.

"A network of marine protected areas has still not been established in EU waters," said Gaia Angelini of IFAW.

The fact that last month the Commission took legal action against eight countries for not properly monitoring dolphins and porpoises, she explained, "clearly shows how insufficient the protection of these species is".

A Commission official said the problem was being tackled but that progress towards designating protected marine areas varied greatly between member states.

Article reports that the so-called Natura legislation, set up to protect European biodiversity, had run into cultural as well as practical difficulties. Author suggests that the future of many European species could lie in the hands of judges at the European Court of Justice.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Environment: Policies: Nature and Biodiversity http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/index_en.htm

---