Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken in the thirty-seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats

The 1979 Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats (Bern Convention) aims to conserve European wild flora and fauna and their natural habitats, especially those whose conservation requires the co-operation of several States. It is an intergovernmental treaty, concluded under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The European Community is a Contracting Party to this Agreement since 1 September 1982. At present, there are 51 Contracting Parties to the Agreement, including all EU Member States.

The Standing Committee is the decision-making organ of the Convention having powers to assess the conservation status of species and, subsequently, to review the listing of them in the Appendices to the Convention. On 5-8 December 2017, the thirty-seventh annual meeting of the Standing Committee of the Agreement in Strasbourg, France, is to adopt a decision regarding an amendment of Appendix II to the Agreement.

The Republic of Albania has submitted a proposal to amend Appendix II of the Agreement to include the Balkan lynx, Lynx lynx spp. balcanicus, which is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, already listed in Appendix III to the Agreement (protected wild fauna species). The Union should support the proposal because it is science-based and in line with the Union's commitment to international cooperation for the protection of biodiversity.

EUR-Lex: COM(2017)628: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2017:628:FIN

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