WRITTEN QUESTION P-3176/01

by Werner Langen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(13 November 2001)

Subject: Final notification of bird conservation areas in Germany

By what date must the Federal Republic of Germany have given the Commission final notification of bird conservation areas, as required by the directive on the conservation of wild birds? Can the Commission give brief details of the timetable for notifying the bird conservation areas, the checks carried out and its complaints against the Federal Republic of Germany, with particular reference to Rhineland-Palatinate?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(10 January 2002)

Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979, on the conservation of wild birds (hereafter wild birds Directive)(1) was adopted by the Council on 2 April 1979. The rules for the notification of special protected areas (SPAs, Article 4 paragraphs 1 and 2) contained no deadline in which the Member States must propose areas, but Member States must fulfil their obligations in any case within reasonable periods. In its Resolution of 2 April 1979(3) concerning the wild birds Directive the Council called upon Member States to notify the Commission within 24 months following adoption of that Directive, i.e. before 2 April 1981, of areas they have classified as SPAs under the Directive, areas they have designated as wetlands of international importance, and areas other than wetlands already classified according to national legislation which are subject to comparable protection measures.

The declaration for the SPAs of the new Länder would have had to be made on the basis of Article 5(2) of Council Directive 90/656/EEC of 4 December 1990 on the transitional measures for certain Community regulations, applying in Germany, on environmental protection(2), in April 1991.

The implementation of the wild birds directive was and still is, the subject of various infringement procedures against Germany. Germany has made substantial progress in the course of these procedures with the implementation of the directive.

SPAs are to be notified on the basis of available scientific information and ornithological criteria. From an examination of those areas notified to date in Germany, it seems that not all areas that appear most suitable according to these criteria have yet been declared as SPAs. Moreover, some existing SPAs have been notified on the basis of an insufficient land area. The scientific reference basis for evaluating the German SPA network was the listing of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) both for old (1989) and new (1991) Bundesländer, as well as the new international listing (IBA 2000) published in spring 2000. These listings are based on understandable, internationally recognised ornithological criteria.

For Rhineland-Palatinate, the Federal Government informed the Commission on 27 April 2001 that the entire surface of the SPAs of the Land Rhineland-Palatinate amounts to 96,483 hectares. However, neither the complete list of the SPAs in Rhineland-Palatinate nor the necessary notification documents are available to the Commission. Up to now only 6 SPAs with a total surface of 428 hectares for Rhineland-Palatinate have been formally notified to the Commission. A final evaluation of the notification for Rhineland-Palatinate is therefore not possible at this time.

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(2) OJ L 353, 17.12.1990.

(3) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.