Uphill battle for Commission to bring Member States in line with new Biodiversity Strategy

The European Commission’s new Biodiversity Strategy 2030 published today has the right tools in place to safeguard nature but only if it can enforce the laws that Member States have at times skirted with impunity in the past, says CEE Bankwatch Network.

The Biodiversity Strategy 2030 is a key pillar of the European Green Deal and is meant to ‘protect nature and increase the coverage and effectiveness of protected areas’, ‘restore damaged ecosystems’, ‘promote the sustainable use of forest [and other] ecosystems’, and to ‘fully integrate biodiversity.’

But a new Bankwatch publication documents examples from across central and eastern Europe where governments have not respected EU nature protection laws, oftentimes using the European financial support to construct damaging energy and transportation infrastructure.

Raphael Hanoteaux, EU funds policy officer with CEE Bankwatch Network

“The Commission recognises the need for better enforcement of environmental legislation, which is urgently needed. But you cannot protect old-growth forests while letting Member States get away with burning them for energy, and paying for roads to facilitate timber removal.

To halt biodiversity decline, the EU will have to do three things simultaneously: rigorously deal with infringements, make sure that offenders are not supported by money from the European public purse and make other policies consistent with the biodiversity objectives.”

For more information contact:

Raphael Hanoteaux, EU funds policy officer
Email: raphaelh@bankwatch.org
Mobile: +32 496 205 903