Expanding Natura 2000 network

Natura 2000 is an ecological network on protected areas, based on the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive of the European Union.



Among the summaries of EU legislation, the European Commission offers some background about conservation on the page Natural habitats (Natura 2000) (latest update 1 August 2008).

The latest development is a package of extensions of conservation areas.


The Official Journal of the European Union L 30 published 2 February 2010 is a hefty issue of 566 pages, dedicated to the 22 December 2009 decisions by the European Commission on updated and expanded lists of Natura 2000 sites, in the following biogeographical regions (OJEU 2.2.2010 L 30/1):

• Alpine
• Atlantic
• Continental
• Mediterranean
• Boreal


The consolidated version of the Habitats Directive 92/43 is of 1 January 2007, officially:

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora




Biodiversity is on the agenda of the Commission, which has published a Communication: What next for biodiversity protection in the EU? (19 January 2010; IP/10/32).




Ralf Grahn







P.S. Cross-border communication is a necessity in the European Union and beyond, with scrutiny by active citizens. At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

European Union Law in English and its sister blog in Bulgarian are written by the lawyer Vihar Georgiev, who serves his readers with quick updates on new legal acts, decisions and other developments in EU law.

European Union Law is listed among 522 great Euroblogs (at the latest count) on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.

If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

New EU Birds Directive 2009/147

One of the classics of environmental legislation, the European Union’s Birds Directive 79/409 has been codified for the sake of clarity and officially replaced by a new Directive:




DIRECTIVE 2009/147/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds (codified version); Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 26.1.2010 L 20/7


Codification


Within the framework of better regulation, this is how the European Commission’s glossary explains the meaning of codification:

Codification

In a wide sense, used in some Member States, codification means gathering all legislation on a particular topic into a single "book" (e.g. penal code). In a narrow sense, and as used in the EU context, codification consists of the adoption of a new legislative act which incorporates and repeals the previous ones (i.e. the basic act and all amending acts). This makes the law clearer and more easily accessible without changing its substance.

The Legal service of the Commission offers additional information about codification.



A Worker Reads History?


Bertolt Brecht wrote the poem Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters (A Worker Reads History), where he questioned the traditional presentation of historical events through great men.

For some reason Brecht’s poem occurred to me, when I wondered if a Directive with most of the substance annexed in Latin can be said to have been published in the official languages of the European Union (and its member states).




Ralf Grahn





P.S. Christian Engström, Pirate MEP, challenges established interests and business models by presenting the views of the Pirate Party on reforming the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). The blog posts are in Swedish or English.


Christian Engström’s blog is listed with more than 500 great Euroblogs on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, policies, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

This is the one year anniversary of Bloggingportal.eu. During this first year the number of blogs almost doubled.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.