{"id":39291,"date":"2026-05-12T10:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/39291\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:01:09","slug":"commission-seeking-public-opinion-on-eu-nature-directives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/39291\/","title":{"rendered":"Commission seeking public opinion on EU Nature Directives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission launched a <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/law\/better-regulation\/have-your-say\/initiatives\/18072-Birds-and-Habitats-Directives-stress-test_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">public consultation<\/a> today (12 May) on the <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/topics\/nature-and-biodiversity\/birds-directive_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Birds <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/topics\/nature-and-biodiversity\/habitats-directive_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Habitats<\/a> Directives, with contributions feeding into a <a href=\"https:\/\/green-forum.ec.europa.eu\/nature-and-biodiversity\/stress-test-birds-and-habitats-directives_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stress test<\/a> of both.<\/p>\n<p>It is part of the Commission&#8217;s wider simplification initiative to strengthen EU competitiveness while continuing to safeguard environmental, economic and social goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The EU Nature Directives protect birds and habitats in the EU, contributing to Europe\u2019s resilience and implementing international commitments. Announced in <a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/document\/download\/502b572e-4ac3-47a8-95a7-ce619ec3e0ba_en?filename=COM_2025_980_1_EN_ACT_part1_v8.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 2025<\/a>, the stress test aims to assess whether the directives achieve their objectives to protect nature in the EU and do so in a cost-efficient way.<\/p>\n<p>The stress test will also identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary administrative burden while maintaining the directives\u2019 ambition and high standards of nature protection.<\/p>\n<p>To support Member States and reduce administrative burden, the Commission already published two guidance documents\u00a0at the end of March 2026 \u2013 on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/news\/commission-future-proofs-natura-2000-against-climate-change-2026-03-25_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Natura 2000 and climate change<\/a> and on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_760\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">certain provisions of the Birds Directive<\/a>. This comes on top of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/environment.ec.europa.eu\/news\/commission-adopts-guidance-natura-2000-and-fishing-2025-10-17_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Natura 2000 and fishing<\/a> guidelines published in October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The stress-test is conducted in close cooperation with Member States and stakeholders and will build on the results of the <a href=\"https:\/\/commission.europa.eu\/publications\/fitness-check-eu-nature-legislation-birds-and-habitats-directives-directive-2009147ec-conservation_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2016 Fitness Check<\/a> of the Directives.<\/p>\n<p>We encourage citizens and stakeholders to participate in this public consultation, which is open until 4 August.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission launched a public consultation today (12 May) on the Birds and Habitats Directives, with contributions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2385],"tags":[1708,256,14389,1709],"class_list":{"0":"post-39291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-european-commission","8":"tag-biodiversity","9":"tag-european-commission","10":"tag-protected-area","11":"tag-protected-species"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}