The socialist Riojan MEP César Luena has shown his outright rejection of the review of the Birds and Habitats Directives that the European Commission has included in its work programme for 2027. "These rules are the basis for nature protection in the EU and for the Natura 2000 network, and we cannot allow them to be weakened, as is happening with environmental legislation due to pressure from the right, the far right and certain economic sectors," Luena said, who is part of the Committee on Environment of the European Parliament.
The European parliamentarian has defended, contrary to the review, the "full implementation of the directives", and has called for "making their implementation easier, helping Member States, improving funding and offering greater legal clarity when necessary, but without modifying rules that are fundamental for the conservation of our biodiversity".
Luena also recalled that the European Commission itself is already carrying out an assessment to determine whether these directives achieve their objectives efficiently and whether their implementation can be simplified without lowering their level of environmental ambition. "It is very worrying that, before knowing the conclusions of the assessment, the Commission announces that it is already going to review the directives," the MEP said. "Europe does not need less environmental protection, but rather to apply better the laws it already has, with sufficient resources and science-based decisions," he concluded.