EU Environment ministers endorse Biodiversity Strategy

The European Council of environment ministers has formally adopted conclusions on the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, endorsing its objectives.

A statement from the council said that the conclusions adopted today (Friday, October 23) give “political guidance” as regards the implementation of the strategy.

In its conclusions, the council calls on the commission to “integrate EU biodiversity policy objectives in relevant future legislative proposals”.

The council also reiterates the need to “fully integrate these objectives into other sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and a coherent implementation of EU measures in these fields”.

In particular, the council welcomed the objective of creating a network of protected areas and to protect “at least” 30% of the EU’s land area.

The council said that this is “an objective to be reached by member states collectively, with all member states participating in this joint effort as well as taking into account national conditions”.

This network would be based on the Natura 2000 network and will be complemented by additional designations by member states.

The council also concluded that “more ambition on nature restoration is needed”, and that it was waiting on the European Commission to propose legally-binding nature restoration targets, subject to an impact assessment.

The council underlined that the new European biodiversity governance framework “has to respect the subsidiarity principle and that all relevant proposals should be prepared and developed in cooperation with the member states”.

The conclusions also stated that the EU wanted to “lead by example” in developing a global biodiversity plan at the UN Biodiversity Conference in 2021.

Finally, the council noted that member states want a significant portion of the 30% ringfenced portion of the EU Budget for climate action to go towards biodiversity.