Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Environment — Conservation of wild birds — Directive 79/409 — Classification of special protection areas — Obligation of the Member States — Obligation to adopt measures which automatically link the classification of a site as a special protection area to the application of a protection regime — (Council Directive 79/409, Art. 4)

2. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — Need for clear and precise transposition — (Art. 249 EC)

Summary

1. Article 4(1) and (2) of Directive 79/409 on the conservation of wild birds requires the Member States to provide special protection areas with a legal protection regime that is capable, in particular, of ensuring both the survival and reproduction of the bird species listed in Annex I to the directive and the breeding, moulting and wintering of migratory species not listed in that annex which are regular visitors. Under paragraph 4 of that article, as amended in part in relation to special protection areas by Article 7 of Directive 92/43 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, the legal protection regime of those areas must also guarantee the avoidance therein of the deterioration of natural habitats and the habitats of species as well as significant disturbance of the species for which those areas have been designated.

The absence of any national provision linking the classification of a site as a special protection area to the application of a protection regime such as that described in the said Article 4 undermines the objective of special protection for wild bird life.

see paras 15-17

2. The provisions of directives must be implemented with unquestionable binding force, and the specificity, precision and clarity necessary to satisfy the requirements of legal certainty which requires appropriate publicity for the national measures adopted pursuant to Community rules in such a way as to enable the persons concerned by such measures to ascertain the scope of their rights and obligations in the particular area governed by Community law.

see para. 21