WRITTEN QUESTION P-0305/98 by Reimer Böge (PPE) to the Commission (5 February 1998)

Subject: Natura 2000

1. Can the Commission give a list of sites designated by the Member States under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna ((OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7. )) and the directive on the conservation of wild birds of 2 April 1979 (79/409/EEC) ((OJ L 103, 25.4.1979, p. 1. ))?

2. How many special protection areas were designated and what percentage of national territory is covered by the designated areas in each country?

3. To what extent do the sites designated by the individual Member States include already established nature protection or conservation areas?

4. Does the Commission know what financial compensation measures are being taken or planned by the Member States with regard to the designated special protection areas?

5. Does Council Regulation EEC No 2078/92 ((OJ L 215, 30.7.1992, p. 85. )) of 30 June 1992 open up any possibility of providing financial support for agreements concerning nature conservation measures in special protection areas?

6. How does the Commission interpret Article 2(3) of Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats concerning the need to take account of economic and regional factors?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (27 February 1998)

1. The sites put forward by the Member States under Directive 92/43/EEC, the 'Habitats' directive, are listed in the Natura barometer that is regularly updated by the Commission. That Natura barometer is published every four months in the Natura 2000 newsletter that is widely disseminated by the Commission. The latter will send the latest update of that barometer direct to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat-General of Parliament.

The sites classified under Directive 79/409/EEC, the 'birds' directive, are published annually on the basis of information passed on by the Member States.

The Commission will send the 1997 edition of the inventory of designated special protection areas (SPA), together with the statistics updated in late January 1998, direct to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat General of Parliament.

2. More than 6 400 sites had been put forward under the 'Habitats' Directive, while in early February 1998 roughly 1 750 SPA had been designated under the 'Birds' Directive.

Certain Member States have still not sent in the computerised cards covering all of their proposed or designated sites. The Commission is thus in no position to supply precise percentages concerning the total area concerned. Estimates by each Member State will be sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat General of Parliament. They currently range from 1-3% in Germany and Finland to 15-18% in Greece, Spain and Italy.

3. Sites currently protected under national law as so far receiving no protection are being suggested for the Natura 2000 network. Their relative proportion varies greatly from one Member State to another.

4. No Member State has sent the Commission any estimate of the cost of protecting Natura 2000 sites including types of habitat or priority species as required under Article 8 of the Habitats Directive. Moreover the very great differences between the real-estate rules and those governing public access to natural areas, and the mining-activity authorisation procedures, will involve widely differing national compensation measures.

5. Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92, the 'agri-environment' regulation enables a Member State to recompense farmers for managing a natural area, particularly if the Community-wide appeal of that is recognised under the Natura 2000 network. That approach has already been very widely adopted by the Member States.

6. Article 2(3) provides that general account shall be taken of socio-economic and regional interests against the backdrop of a directive that is intended to maintain natural habitats and species in a favourable state of conservation.

The criteria for site selection are set out in detail in Article 4(1)(3) and in Annex III. They are without exception scientific. Article6(4) states that socio-economic factors may be taken into account in managing selected sites.