BirdLife Malta welcomes the positive news that EU President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Commission have confirmed that the EU’s flagship nature laws – the Birds and Habitats Directives – will be saved and not rewritten and weakened, ending two years of uncertainty over the laws’ future. They have also called for a plan to better implement and enforce these laws. This is a win for the record half a million people who called on the Commission to save and enforce these laws as part of the Europe-wide #NatureAlert campaign.
Following this public campaign, which BirdLife Malta supported alongside the entire BirdLife Europe partnership, the EU Commission had initiated a fitness check of these directives. The Fitness Check results were today announced as showing that these directives are well designed and that more effort is needed in enforcing them.
Ariel Brunner, Senior Head of Policy at BirdLife Europe said: “The Commission’s decision to save our nature laws shows that the voice of over half a million citizens who called for the laws to be enforced were heard loud and clear. Nature is a key value of our society and necessary for our survival. This also is a victory for the idea of European cooperation as nature knows no boundaries.”
Darryl Grima, President of BirdLife Malta stated: “Once again people got united for an environmental cause and their voices were heard. For BirdLife Malta this solidifies the belief that engagement with people is a necessity when environmental issues are concerned. This is a win for nature thanks to the people and when nature wins, people win with it too!”
Today’s announcement from the European Commission
Timeline of events in the campaign which led to today’s decision
#NatureAlert joint international NGO reaction
Read the Maltese version of the press release here.